The Once and Future Cow: Agency, Appetite, and the Anthropocene

Author:   Andrew Kettler (University of South Carolina, USA) ,  Charlton W. Yingling (University of Louisville, USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN:  

9781350568273


Pages:   256
Publication Date:   05 February 2026
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
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The Once and Future Cow: Agency, Appetite, and the Anthropocene


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Full Product Details

Author:   Andrew Kettler (University of South Carolina, USA) ,  Charlton W. Yingling (University of Louisville, USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN:  

9781350568273


ISBN 10:   1350568279
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   05 February 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Introduction. States of Being: Agency and Animalia 1. Considering Cattle and the Colonial Caribbean 2. Tasting Cattle in New Ways 3. Conscious Cows: Sugar, Pens, and Policy 4. Denying Empathy in Modernity 5. Contemplating Cruelty 6. Biopower Over the Once and Future Cow Conclusion: Contemporary Consequences of Consuming Cattle Bibliography Index

Reviews

Charlton Yingling and Andrew Kettle show how our cattle-centric culture is a relatively recent development. And, in this, they offer hope: for if our culture’s red meat hunger hasn’t always been with us, change is possible. Their truly original book illustrates the urgency of seeing cattle as agents, not objects, when exploring historical records and addressing staggering ethical problems. These are among the reasons The Once and Future Cow is a tour de force, both timely and bold, arresting and illuminating. * Carol J. Adams, author, The Sexual Politics of Meat * The Once and Future Cow makes a powerful argument that European settlement across the Atlantic, including efforts to control and profit from animal agents with consciousness, laid the foundations for the modern world’s exploitative industrial beef economy that threatens the global environment. Kettler and Yingling ground big picture ethical arguments in a more specific and vital history of cattle economies of the Atlantic World, and especially the British Caribbean, where they developed alongside the institution of slavery. * John Ryan Fisher, University of Wisconsin, USA *


Charlton Yingling and Andrew Kettle show how our cattle-centric culture is a relatively recent development. And, in this, they offer hope: for if our culture’s red meat hunger hasn’t always been with us, change is possible. Their truly original book illustrates the urgency of seeing cattle as agents, not objects, when exploring historical records and addressing staggering ethical problems. These are among the reasons The Once and Future Cow is a tour de force, both timely and bold, arresting and illuminating. * Carol J. Adams, author, The Sexual Politics of Meat * The Once and Future Cow makes a powerful argument that European settlement across the Atlantic, including efforts to control and profit from animal agents with consciousness, laid the foundations for the modern world’s exploitative industrial beef economy that threatens the global environment. Kettler and Yingling ground big picture ethical arguments in a more specific and vital history of cattle economies of the Atlantic World, and especially the British Caribbean, where they developed alongside the institution of slavery. * John Ryan Fisher, University of Wisconsin, USA * Kettler and Yingling's incisive historical investigations open up a series of unexpected connections between the consumption of beef and dairy today - the globally ubiquitous cheeseburger, say - and colonial violence, slavery, and the introduction of cattle in the Caribbean and through the Americas as part of the settler-colonial enterprise. A remarkable feature of the book is the authors' ability to treat the cow as an intelligent animal with consciousness, agency, and even a capacity for resisting human designs. Truely a thoughtful, multispecies history of modern consumption and modernity. * Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago, USA *


Author Information

Andrew Kettler is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, USA. Charlton W. Yingling is Associate Professor of History at the University of Louisville, USA.

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