Saturday, May 28, 2005

Cows and History

Amusing review, by a cattle rancher, of aHistory of Barbed Wire. Apparently, the book is a cultural history, and true to form, its subtitle "an Ecology of Modernity" is rather bewildering. I'm all for writing histories of things like barbed wire, but I wonder why cultural historians always think the worst of their subjects. Here barbed wire was not created to keep cattle on property, but instead to satisfy a rancher's taste for cruelty and power which was stymied by the end of slavery. So, they were racists and sadists, but isn't everybody in cultural histories? The reviewer points out that barbed wire is disappointing for the sadist since cows learn to avoid it. Also, I'm not sure how those grated ditches that they use now would fit in, since cows will never step in them at all. Anyway, interesting review.

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