Horses at Work: Harnessing Power in Industrial America

by Ann Norton Greene

Historians have long assumed that new industrial machines and power sources eliminated work animals from nineteenth-century America, yet a bird’s-eye view of nineteenth-century society would show millions of horses supplying the energy necessary for industrial development. Horses were ubiquitous in cities and on farms, providing power for transportation, construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. On Civil War battlefields, thousands of horses labored and died for the Union and the Confederacy hauling wagons and mechanized weaponry.

The innovations that brought machinery to the forefront of American society made horses the prime movers of these machines for most of the nineteenth century. Mechanization actually increased the need for horsepower by expanding the range of tasks requiring it. Indeed, the single most significant energy transition of the antebellum era may have been the dramatic expansion in the use of living, breathing horses as a power technology in the development of industrial America.

Ann Greene argues for recognition of horses’ critical contribution to the history of American energy and the rise of American industrial power, and a new understanding of the reasons for their replacement as prime movers. Rather than a result of “inevitable” technological change, it was Americans’ social and political choices about power consumption that sealed this animal’s fate. The rise and fall of the workhorse was defined by the kinds of choices that Americans made and would continue to make―choices that emphasized individual mobility and autonomy, and assumed, above all, abundant energy resources.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2008

Reviews

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating look at the spectrum of issues that led to the meteoric rise and equally large fall of horses as "prime movers" in the American energy economy between about 1800 and 1920. Valuable not only for its look at equine roles in industrializing society, but also the development of transportation infrastructure, animal breeding, professionalized engineering and veterinary medicine, animal welfare, and more.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I were to write (or read) a book on any subject I would want it to be a thorough and insightful as Greene's work. She writes the history of the horse as the technology that bridged the gap between the juggernaut steam engine that powered trains, ships, and big factories and small scale human-motor that had always served man.

The casual reader may see this book as ONLY about horses in the 19th century, but the book reveals SO MUCH MORE about man's relationship with technology in any generation. This is history that makes one reflect not just about the past but about the present and future and the way technology shapes society in the most intimate ways.

This is an under appreciated book that deserve more attention.

[Chelsea Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. This is another book I had to read for grad school this week. Each week it is a new book. This book is about the use of horses in the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. during the mid to late 1800's into the early 1900's. The author does not address the South, Southwest, West or Northwest. This book only focuses on a small part of the U.S. so it is not a full history of horses in the U.S.

What hurts this book is the author spends too much time and detail on the subject of horse breeding and it really bogs the book down and takes away from the story the book is trying to tell. The author does this again in a later chapter of the book when she spends a whole chapter talking about the study of the horse. Lastly after the Civil War she jumps ahead to the industrial revolution without filling in the gap of time.

I did learn quite a bit reading this book, I had no idea horses where used on this grand of scale. Would I recommend this book to someone? Probably not, unless they were researching the subject or were really into the history of horses.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fascinating.

From the biological sciences: Learning that horses have an energy conversion mechanism surpassing the sun in power output.

From the social: Learning that horse breeding and the use of mules took on connotations with slavery, class and eugenics.

From the energy sciences (and social): Learning that the angst today of society's conversion to new power sources, and the social and political milieu that informs and motivates it is not really new. It has all happened before.

I like horses generally, so a book about them is welcome. Yet the nuggets in here, and the lessons the offer for our current world, was intellectually stimulating.

[Ellen Gwynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of how the huge U.S. horse population was used in the 19th century

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Greene focuses on horsepower and horse culture as energy technologies in a spellbinding way that makes one think long and hard about our contemporary use of terms such as "horsepower" or the "iron horse." While it would be easy to say that horses were rendered obsolete by mechanization--particularly the car, Greene demonstrates why this assumption is a bit presumptuous--there is a story to tell here that restores horses to their impressive role in industrialization (rather than a replacement by). Her access into this thesis is really quite brilliant. She found in an 1881 document, a person observing how an epidemic effecting horses brought the city to a standstill. Horses were in fact the movers of the city's infrastructure: from transport to industrial work. Horses were not displaced by machines in the time or way, we might have expected or assumed as Greene reveals.

Horses did not disappear from nineteenth century American life due to industrialization. They were ubiquitous in both urban and rural settings during this time period. “Mechanization actually increased the need for horsepower by expanding the range of tasks requiring it. Indeed, the single most significant energy transition of the antebellum early have been the dramatic expansion of the use of living, breathing horses as power technology in the development of industrial America.”

“Ann Greene argues for recognition of horses’ critical contribution to the history of American energy and the rise of American industrial power, and a new understanding of the reasons for their replacement as prime movers” (front and back flaps). Social and political choices about power consumption sealed the horses’ fate—individual mobility and autonomy and abundant energy sources.

Horses are a biotechnology—organisms altered (bred) for human use. By domestication they became living machines (4).

Draft—the amount of power required to put an object in motion; it gauges energy cost. Reducing draft was the name of the game in 19th century industries (6). While there are other draft animals--oxen, donkeys, mules, etc.--horses have been the favored species for their combination of strength, speed, and agility. Horses have remained as status symbols (heroic monuments of people on horseback come to mind).

Humans and horses worked together to achieve industrialization. While this sounds silly, Greene does qualify her point. Horse agency does not equal human agency; however, historical agents do not require intentionality to affect the process of historical change (7-8).

How might one argue for the resilience of horse power? Well, one could point out that it took three types of energy to replace it: steam, electric, and automotive (gasoline) transport (8). Then, of course, there is the fact that we still measure car power in units called horsepower.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far extremely interesting history of how the horse was chosen during the beginning of industrial America as the machine of choice for power and stature. Touches on some interesting arguments for mules, oxen and camels.