Cattle Country: Livestock in the Cultural Imagination

In nineteenth-century America, the cow became the nation's representative food animal and gained a culturally prominent role in literature. Kathryn Cornell Dolan's book "Cattle Country" examines how cattle played a significant part in narratives throughout the century, reflecting societys broader struggles with colonization, environment, identity, ethnicity, and industrialization. Authors such as Henry David Thoreau, Washington Irving, and María Amparo Ruiz de Burton used cattle to address concerns about resource depletion, habitat destruction, and overproduction. The book offers a new ecocritical perspective on nineteenth-century literature by excavating the history of U.S. settler colonialism through the figure of cattle.

Format: Hardback
Length: 342 pages
Publication date: 01 June 2021
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

In the 19th century, America's beef and cattle production surged, leading the cow to become the nation's iconic food animal and gain significant cultural prominence in the literature of the time. In her book "Cattle Country," Kathryn Cornell Dolan delves into the profound role that cattle played in narratives throughout the century, revealing how the struggles within U.S. food culture intertwined with broader societal challenges such as colonization, environmentalism, U.S. identity, ethnicity, and industrialization.

Dolan explores a wide range of texts from Native American, African American, Mexican American, and white authors, showcasing the prevailing anxiety surrounding U.S. identity as cattle gradually transitioned from a traditional food source to an industrialized commodity. This transformation not only altered the country's culture but also had significant consequences for humans, animals, and the land. Authors' preoccupations with cattle reflected their concerns about resource depletion, habitat destruction, and the wasteful overproduction of a single breed of livestock.

Through her meticulous analysis, Dolan uncovers how authors navigated the complexities of this evolving food culture. From Henry David Thoreau's observations about indigenous cuisines challenging the rise of monoculture to Washington Irving's travel narratives predicting cattle replacing American bison in the West, to María Amparo Ruiz de Burton's use of cattle to explore race and imperialism, authors' narratives reflected their deep-seated concerns about the environmental and social impacts of cattle production.

"Cattle Country" provides a valuable lens through which to examine the ways in which authors grappled with the consequences of this food culture's development. By excavating the history of U.S. settler colonialism through the figure of cattle, Dolan sheds new ecocritical light on 19th-century literature, offering a fresh perspective on the environmental, social, and cultural challenges of that era.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496218643