Reviews
Well-researched and with a deep understanding of the historiographic context, Making Machines of Animals makes an important contribution to the history of agriculture, animals, food, and capitalism. Animal life was a problem to be solved for industrial agriculture, and the International became a means for doing so by spreading industrialized improvement ideology. This industrialization of life itself is a major feature of contemporary agriculture and a source of many of its present challenges and ills—and some of its benefits.
Knapp reveals the rich history and influence of the International Livestock Exposition in this beautifully crafted book that highlights the human reformers and food animals who stole the show ring spotlight. Readers will marvel at Knapp's ability to weave histories of science, technology, and agriculture.
In tracing the history of Chicago's International Livestock Exposition, product of a sometimes uneasy alliance between industrial meatpackers and Land Grant Universities, Knapp illuminates a crucial nerve center in the industrialization of animal bodies, a site where eugenic fantasies and dreams of efficiency were translated into new market and landscape realities.
At a moment when American pigs and chickens are invisibly confined in barns and relentlessly torqued for profit, Neal A. Knapp takes us back to when public displays and industrial propaganda were mobilized to transform the nature of animal life. This profound and engaging book uncovers the historical dreams and infrastructures that underlie factory farming.
Book Details
Introduction: The World's Most Conspicuous Livestock Show
1. Meatpackers and Professors Take Aim at "Scrubs"
2. Breeding Up Livestock
3. Recreating the Animal Body
4. From Dreaming to Teaching the Animal
Introduction: The World's Most Conspicuous Livestock Show
1. Meatpackers and Professors Take Aim at "Scrubs"
2. Breeding Up Livestock
3. Recreating the Animal Body
4. From Dreaming to Teaching the Animal Fantasy
5. New Animals, New Problems
Epilogue: The Legacy of the Modern Animal
Bibliography
Index
Notes