Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Making Beef Modern 4
How Beef Transformed America 7
Beyond the United States 11
A Steer's-Eye View of the History of American Capitalism 14
Book Overview 17
1 War 21
The Golden Age of the Plains Nomads: Buffalo and the Spread of Horses across the Plains 26
"A Helping Hand over This Wild and Destitute Country": Life on the Texas Frontier and the Red River War 30
Beef Handouts and the Reservation System 44
From War to Criminality: Retelling the Story 58
Conclusion 64
2 Range 67
"As Large as All Yorkshire": Buying, Counting, and Managing Cattle 75
Land: Private and Public 81
"Cowboy-ism": Cattle Workers and Western Mythology 95
"Doomed of Its Own Excesses [?]": Hard Winters and the Collapse of the Industry 106
Conclusion 115
3 Market 119
The Cattle Marketing System 122
From Ranch to Slaughter 132
Horses, Water, and Stampedes: The Ecology of Cattle Trailing 134
Cattle Disease and the Regulation of Mobility 145
Between Trail and Market 152
Making a Deal 165
Conclusion 170
4 Slaughterhouse 174
Labor 179
Refrigerators on Wheels 191
The Decline of Wholesale Butchering and the Rise of Dressed Beef 201
Early Regulatory Approaches 210
Conclusion 215
5 Table 218
Buying Beef 224
Canned Beef and Its Critics 227
Beef and Hierarchy 235
Concluding with a Meat Riot 247
Conclusion 252
Notes 261
Bibliography 309
Index 329
