Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America

(Hardback)

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How beef conquered America and gave rise to the modern industrial food complex By the late nineteenth century, Americans rich and poor had come to expect high-quality fresh beef with almost every meal. Beef production in the United States had gone from small-scale, localized operations to a highly centralized industry spanning the country, with

Reviews

"Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Award, Agricultural History Society"
"Honorable Mention for the Vincent P. DeSantis Book Prize, Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era"
"Co-Winner of the Silver Medal in Business Commentary, Axiom Business Book Awards"
"One Smithsonian's Ten Best Books About Food of 2019"
"Spechts story of how the meatpackers exploited unskilled labour, bankrupted local butchers and seized power from the railroads holds warnings for today."---Brooke Masters, Financial Times
"Explaining how Americans came to eat so much beef and to pay so little for it turns out to be an especially gargantuan enterprise, which Specht pulls off with aplomb, in accessible and sprightly prose."---Samuel Moyn, New Republic
"A fascinating cultural exploration."---Rebecca Onion, History Today
"Specht tells the little-known story of how Americans became beef-eaters. From cattle ranches in the rural West to slaughterhouses in Chicago, the environmental and business historian charts the path of meat and, in doing so, delivers what is really a tale of people and power. . . . By following the meat industry through centuries of conflict, this book puts a new, troubling lens on American history."---Andrea Michelson, Smithsonian

Author Bio

Joshua Specht is assistant professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. Twitter @joshspecht