Red Meat Republic: The Rise of the Cattle-Beef Complex, 1865-1906

Abstract

"Red Meat Republic: The Rise of the Cattle-Beef Complex, 1865-1906," examines the consolidation of the American meatpacking and ranching industries. Supplying urban consumers with inexpensive beef required a form of industrialized animal husbandry that had high costs, both human and environmental. In spite of these costs - the source of widespread criticism and public unease - this system has persisted in roughly the same shape for nearly a century. I argue this resilience depends on a set of widely accepted narratives that made centralized meatpacking appear natural and inevitable. Whether rooted in cultural discourses justifying Indian land expropriation or technological arguments rationalizing market concentration, particular narratives enabled the historical processes integral to the rise of big meatpacking. "Red Meat Republic" critiques these narratives and offers an alternate account of industrial animal husbandry's origins.