Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607–1983 by Jimmy M. Skaggs

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 145 Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607— 1983. By Jimmy M. Skaggs. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. Pp. xiii + 263; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $28.50. In terms of production technology as well as distribution and mar­ keting developments, the meat-packers have been important inno­ vators. They were the most influential segment of the food-processing industries. Over the past decade, America’s meat-packing industry has drawn renewed attention from historians. Two recent books de­ serve special note, Margaret Walsh’s The Rise of the Midwestern Meat Packing Industry and Mary Yeager’s Competition and Regulation: The De­ velopment of Oligopoly in the Meat Packing Industry. While Walsh and Yeager limited themselves to particular issues and time periods,Jimmy Skaggs has a more ambitious scope. Moving from 1607 to 1983, Prime Cut covers both livestock raising and meat-packing, in chronological fashion, moving back and forth between the two. In the opening pages, Skaggs discusses the colonial period, then traces the gradual movement of the livestock industry into the Ohio territory and beyond. By the 1810s, cattle drives were moving animals from the western frontier to slaughtering operations in coastal cities such as Baltimore and New York. Looking across the continent, Skaggs reviews the antebellum livestock trade in California and Texas. On the meat-packing side, the most interesting details concern the sani­ tary problems and political wrangling generated by slaughtering and packing operations in metropolitan centers like New York. Viewed as a necessary evil at best, these operations were regulated from an early point and were constantly pushed toward the outlying sections of the city. In analyzing the period between the Civil War and World War I, Skaggs focuses on two developments: cattle raising on the western plains and the rise of the large midwestern packing firms such as Swift and Armour. Strangely enough, though, he insists that the role of western operations in the nation’s cattle production has been consis­ tently overstated. Unfortunately, little evidence is offered to support this argument. While the story of Swift, Armour, Hammond, and the other Chicago-area meat-packers is a familiar one, most readers should find this an interesting tale. Resistance to the introduction of chilled beef was widespread; not only the railroads opposed it, so did cattle­ men and butchers. In an attempt to blunt some of the opposition, Swift continued to ship both cattle and chilled meat. Skaggs also out­ lines the emergence of oligopoly within the industry and reviews the story of organized labor in the packing houses. The final chapters of this work are the weakest, often lacking any apparent focus. Skaggs discusses the slump in the market during the 1920s and 1930s and the decline of the Big Four packing firms after 146 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE the Second World War. The rise of companies such as Iowa Beef Processors and Excel, with their low labor costs, modern plants, and boxed meat, has established a new order in the packing industry. However, the author concludes, these newcomers may soon constitute a new oligopoly. For those seeking an overview of America’s red meat industry, Prime Cut offers a good starting point. Although I am enthusiastic about Skaggs’s effort to integrate so much material, I have two serious res­ ervations about his book. On the technical side, the references are far too spartan. The few existing footnotes do little to enlighten us about the sources or suggest differences in viewpoint. This greatly dimin­ ishes the book’s value as a research tool for other scholars. And interpretively , Prime Cut would have benefited from a tighter focus and a sharper sense of the underlying themes. A good conclusion could have tied the story together. In a broad synthesis of this nature, the unifying threads ought to be clearly identified. Mark Wildf. Dr. Wilde, a former Hagley Fellow, recently completed a dissertation on the history of America’s food-processing industries. He is currently a senior economist with the WEFA Group in Philadelphia. Fordson, Farmall, and Poppin’ Johnny: A History of the Farm Tractor and Its Impact on America. By Robert C. Williams...