Description
The human quest to improve livestock, exploring genetics, eugenics and practical breeding in Shorthorn Cattle, Collies and Arabian Horses. In Bred for Perfection, Margaret E. Derry provides the most comprehensive and accessible book yet published on the human quest to improve and develop livestock. Derry, herself a breeder and trained historian of science, explores the “triangle” of genetics, eugenics, and practical breeding, focusing of Shorthorn cattle, show dogs and working dogs, and one type of purebred horse, the Arabian.
By examining specific breeders and the animals they produced, she illuminates the role of technology, genetics, culture, and economics in the system of purebred breeding. Bred for Perfection also provides the historical context in which this system arose, adding to our understanding of how domestication works and how our welfare–since the dawn of time–has been intertwined with the lives of animals.
Synopsis:
How did animal breeding emerge as a movement? Who took part and for what reasons? How do the pedigree and market systems work? What light might the movement shed on the assumptions behind human eugenics? In Bred for Perfection, Margaret Derry provides the most comprehensive and accessible book yet published on the human quest to improve and develop livestock. Derry, herself a breeder and trained historian of science, explores the “triangle” of genetics, eugenics, and practical breeding, focusing on Shorthorn cattle, show dogs and working dogs, and one type of purebred horse, the Arabian. By examining specific breeders and the animals they produced, she illuminates the role of technology, genetics, culture, and economics in the system of purebred breeding. Bred for Perfection also provides the historical context in which this system arose, adding to our understanding of how domestication works and how our welfare since the dawn of time has been intertwined with the lives of animals. explores the improvement of Shorthorn cattle, Collie dogs and Arabian horses in Britain and North America since the eighteenth century. Though the three breeds are no more alike than chalk and cheese, the same threads run through their histories. She ranges widely and with assurance across this many-faceted subject, shedding light on matters hitherto opaque or obscure. Her book is an engaging exploration of the not-always creative tensions between science, aesthetics and the profit motive in the history of animal breeding over the last two centuries.” John R. Walton, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Reviews
“It is to [Shorthorn Cattle, Collie dogs and Arabian Horses] that Margaret Derry (herself a breeder) turns her attention in this engaging and carefully researched book. Central to Derry’s six chapters in which she discusses the breeding of [these animals] since the early nineteenth century is the basic theme that breeding ideology and the growth of internal and transatlantic markets are closely intertwined in the creation of purebred animals.”
– The Agricultural History Review , October 6, 2004
“In this book, Margaret Derry, pedigree cattle breeder, livestock artist, and historian, explores the improvement of Shorthorn cattle, Collie dogs, and Arabian horses in Britain and North America since the eighteenth century. Though the three breeds are no more alike than chalk and cheese, the same threads run through their histories. Derry ranges widely and with assurance across this multi-faceted subject, shedding light on matters hitherto opaque or obscure. Her book is an engaging exploration of the not-always-creative tensions between science, aesthetics, and the profit motive in the history of animal breeding over the last two centuries.”
– John R. Walton, University of Wales, November 6, 2004