Slaughterhouse
Chicago's Union Stock Yard and the World It Made
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7307622 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wilson J Warren (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 782.2-783 |
| Publication date | 2016-11-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaw409 |
| OpenAlex | W2914035983 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Between 1900 and 1925 Chicago's Union Stock Yard—Dominic A. Pacyga has intentionally used the original name—was arguably the most important industrial district in the United States, if not in the world. Pacyga's book emphasizes the wonderment that this vast complex of people and animals inspired and its economic significance in provisioning much of the nation's meat supply from the stockyard's opening in 1865 to its closing in 1971. The book has broad appeal because it conveys information accessible to general readers and skillfully encapsulates academic literature. In addition to drawing upon the vast array of literature that has been written about the Chicago stockyard, Pacyga also provides analytical perspectives that benefit from his experiences and his significant scholarship. Chicago's stockyard resulted from the city's emergence as the nation's agro-industrial center. As William Cronon's Nature's Metropolis (1991) illuminated, Chicago grew because its factories transformed the West's natural resources and agricultural abundance into products that its railroad networks shipped nationwide. While Pacyga conveys insights into stockyard and meat-packing workers' conditions and union efforts, the most captivating portions of the book highlight how the so-called Square Mile drew thousands of visitors. Today tourists from around the globe flock to places such as the Gettysburg battlefield and the Lincoln Memorial. In the years immediately before and after 1900, about half a million people—including foreign dignitaries—were drawn each year to the “spectacle” of the stockyard and toured its meat-packing plants. Stereopticon cards, postcards, trading cards, and advertisements were distributed among the visitors, and the book includes a representative sampling of such images—many from Pacyga's personal collection. Public access to the stockyard and packing plants is all the more remarkable given the virtual impossibility of touring a slaughtering facility today. The book's description of the Dexter Park International Amphitheater, where the International Livestock Exposition first took place in 1900, is valuable in highlighting the stockyard's role in promoting livestock science and marketing. The amphitheater was also Chicago's main venue for exhibitions, shows, and conventions, including the dramatic 1968 Democratic National Convention, before McCormick Place assumed this role
Agricultural economics · Archaeology · Banner · Economic history · Economics · Yard · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · History
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2024 (8) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |