Description
Animal breeding has been complicated by persisting factors across species, cultures, geography, and time. In Made to Order, Margaret explains these factors and other breeding concerns in relation to both animals and society in North America and Europe over the past three centuries.
Made to Order addresses how breeding methodology evolved, what characterized the aims of breeding, and the way structures were put in place to regulate the occupation. Illustrated by case studies on important farm animals and companion species, the book presents a synthetic overview of livestock breeding as a whole. It gives considerable emphasis to genetics and animal breeding in the post-1960 period, the relationship between environmental and improvement breeding, and regulation of breeding as seen through pedigrees. Made to Order shows how studying the ancient human practice of animal breeding can illuminate the ways in which human thinking, theorizing, and evolving characterized our interactions with all-natural processes.
REVIEWS:
“In the culmination of Margaret E. Derry’s work over the last twenty years, Made to Order brings together in concise form the insights that were accumulated by the most knowledgeable author in the field of animal breeding history. The presentation of this comprehensive overview may be said to represent the status quo in the field of history of animal breeding.”
– Bert Theunissen, Director of the Descartes Centre of history and Philosophy of the Sciences and Humanities, Utrecht University.
“Made to Order is a magisterial work that reflects years of scholarship on animal breeding. Margaret E. Derry presents a detailed and skillfully organized account that provides a wide scope of scientific and historical knowledge, practical understanding, and thoughtful consideration. It is also a tremendous accomplishment.”
– Ann Norton Greene, Adjunct Assistant Professor of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania.
“Made to Order is fascinating and informative. The book expertly and crisply brings together a range of examples from Canadian, US, and European contexts, drawing on archival and historical materials. With up-to-date scholarship, Made to Order fills a gap in the literature and is a significant contribution to the history of agriculture, the history of animals in society, and the history of science.”
– Scout Calvert, Associate Professor and Research Data Librarian, University of Nebraska Lincoln.