
Rodeo
An Animal History
Susan Nance(Author)
University of Oklahoma Press
Published on 30. May 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
978-0-8061-9013-6 (ISBN)
Description
"What would rodeo look like if we took it as a record, not of human triumph and resilience, but of human imperfection and stubbornness?" asks animal historian Susan Nance. Against the backdrop of the larger histories of ranching, cattle, horses, and the environment in the West, this book explores how the evolution of rodeo has reflected rural western beliefs and assumptions about the natural world that have led to environmental crises and served the beef empire. By unearthing behind-the-scenes stories of rodeo animals as diverse individuals, this book lays bare contradictions within rodeo and the rural West.
For almost 150 years, westerners have used rodeo to symbolically reenact their struggles with animals and the land as uniformly progressive and triumphant. Nance upends that view with accounts of individual animals that reveal how diligently rodeo people have worked to make livestock into surrogates for the trials of rural life in the West and the violence in its history. Western horses and cattle were more than just props. Rodeo reclaims their lived history through compelling stories of anonymous roping steers and calves who inspired reform of the sport, such as the famed but abused bucker Steamboat, and the many broncs and bulls, famous or not, who unknowingly built an industry.
Rodeo is a dangerous sport that reveals many westerners as people proudly tolerant of risk and violence, and ready to impose these values on livestock. In Rodeo: An Animal History, Nance pushes past standard histories and the sport's publicity to show how rodeo was shot through with stubbornness and human failing as much as fortitude and community spirit.
For almost 150 years, westerners have used rodeo to symbolically reenact their struggles with animals and the land as uniformly progressive and triumphant. Nance upends that view with accounts of individual animals that reveal how diligently rodeo people have worked to make livestock into surrogates for the trials of rural life in the West and the violence in its history. Western horses and cattle were more than just props. Rodeo reclaims their lived history through compelling stories of anonymous roping steers and calves who inspired reform of the sport, such as the famed but abused bucker Steamboat, and the many broncs and bulls, famous or not, who unknowingly built an industry.
Rodeo is a dangerous sport that reveals many westerners as people proudly tolerant of risk and violence, and ready to impose these values on livestock. In Rodeo: An Animal History, Nance pushes past standard histories and the sport's publicity to show how rodeo was shot through with stubbornness and human failing as much as fortitude and community spirit.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oklahoma
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
39 b&w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
442 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8061-9013-6 (9780806190136)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Susan Nance is Professor of History at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, where she is also affiliated faculty with the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. She is the editor of The Historical Animal and author of Entertaining Elephants: Animal Agency and Business in the American Circus.