Description

By (author) Taylor William T.

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“Hoof Beats helps readers see the drama even in the grass eating. . . . Taylor has written that too-rare work that is as authoritative as it is legible to the lay audience.”—New York Times

Journey to the ancient past with cutting-edge science and new data to discover how horses forever altered the course of human history.

From the Rockies to the Himalayas, the bond between horses and humans has spanned across time and civilizations. In this archaeological journey, William T. Taylor explores how momentous events in the story of humans and horses helped create the world we live in today. Tracing the horse”s origins and spread from the western Eurasian steppes to the invention of horse-drawn transportation and the explosive shift to mounted riding, Taylor offers a revolutionary new account of how horses altered the course of human history.

Drawing on Indigenous perspectives, ancient DNA, and new research from Mongolia to the Great Plains and beyond, Taylor guides readers through the major discoveries that have placed the horse at the origins of globalization, trade, biological exchange, and social inequality. Hoof Beats transforms our understanding of both horses and humanity”s ancient past and asks us to consider what our relationship with horses means for the future of humanity and the world around us.

Table of contents:
CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Prelude

Beat One · Horses and People
1. Evolution
2. Connection
3. Tracing Domestication

Beat Two · The Cart
4. Wheels
5. Chariots

Beat Three · The Rider
6. Oracle Bones
7. Horseback
8. Horse People
9. The Silk and Tea Roads
10. Steppe Empires
11. Desert and Savanna Empires

Beat Four · The World
12. Out to Sea
13. The Return
14. Pampas
15. Into the Pacifi c and Down Under
16. Iron Horses
17. Hoofprints

List of Illustrations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Review quote:
“Taylor is helping break new ground with his scientific perspective on horse domestication, the timing and origins of which scholars have argued over for decades.”

Review quote:
“Hoof Beats helps readers see the drama even in the grass eating. . . . Taylor has written that too-rare work that is as authoritative as it is legible to the lay audience.”

Review quote:
“This eminently readable, patiently argued, and insightful history of horses will delight and instruct readers, even those who have never felt the pull of saddle leather and horse sweat. It provides the best summary to date of our ever increasing scientific knowledge of the horse and its interaction with our own species, and shows the debt we owe scholars like Taylor who have spent their lives traveling across the globe to lie on their bellies looking for the tiniest scraps of the past.”

Review quote:
“Fantastically rich.”

Review quote:
“The story of the horse is changing fast. Hoof Beats tells us where it stands just now, and can help fill the gap between scholarly developments and popular equine histories.”

Review quote:

“Hoof Beats is an indispensable guide to the contours of the human past as they were drawn through contact with horses.”

Review quote:
“Hoof Beats’ melding of archeology, paleontology, anthropology, genetics, and history—including, importantly, indigenous perspectives—ultimately provides more than an assessment of Equus caballus and its place in history; it underscores the extent to which our modern world simply would not exist as we know it without the lasting bond between human and horse.”

Review quote:
“Taylor’s