City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London - Paperback

by Thomas Almeroth-Williams (Author)

This book explores the role of animals - horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs - in shaping Georgian London. Moving away from the philosophical, fictional and humanitarian sources used by previous animal studies, it focuses on evidence of tangible, dung-bespattered interactions between real people and animals, drawn from legal, parish, commercial, newspaper and private records.This approach opens up new perspectives on unfamiliar or misunderstood metropolitan spaces, activities, social types, relationships and cultural developments. Ultimately, the book challenges traditional assumptions about the industrial, agricultural and consumer revolutions, as well as key aspects of the city's culture, social relations and physical development. It will be stimulating reading for students and professional scholars of urban, social, economic, agricultural, industrial, architectural and environmental history.

Front Jacket

By the early 1800s, an estimated 31,000 horses were at work in and around London, while around the same number of sheep and cattle were driven through the city's streets every week. No other settlement in Europe or North America had ever accommodated so many large four-legged animals, or felt their influence so profoundly. City of beasts reveals the extraordinary contribution that horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs made to the world's first modern metropolis, as well as the challenges that they posed. Following in their hoof- and paw-prints, this book reappraises London's role in the industrial, agricultural and consumer revolutions, as well as key aspects of the city's culture, social relations and physical development. In doing so, it calls for animals to be accorded agency and integrated into social and urban history. City of beasts offers new insights into the lived experiences of Georgian Londoners, as well as the workings and character of a city about which we still have much to discover.

Back Jacket

By the early 1800s, an estimated 31,000 horses were at work in and around London, while around the same number of sheep and cattle were driven through the city's streets every week. No other settlement in Europe or North America had ever accommodated so many large four-legged animals, or felt their influence so profoundly. City of beasts reveals the extraordinary contribution that horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs made to the world's first modern metropolis, as well as the challenges that they posed.

Following in their hoof- and paw-prints, this book reappraises London's role in the industrial, agricultural and consumer revolutions, as well as key aspects of the city's culture, social relations and physical development. In doing so, it calls for animals to be accorded agency and integrated into social and urban history. City of beasts offers new insights into the lived experiences of Georgian Londoners, as well as the workings and character of a city about which we still have much to discover.

Author Biography

Thomas Almeroth-Williams is Research Associate in the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York