Image credit: Saanen and Toggenburg dairy goats at the USDA Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. 1919. National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress.
The role of goats in American history has gone mostly unexamined, yet their story is compelling. For centuries, Americans dismissed goats as the “poor man’s cow,” and associated the animals with poverty and degenerate behavior. But by the turn of the twentieth century, these entrenched negative perceptions of goats began to shift. As cow’s milk contamination scandals dominated the headlines, the general public embraced goat’s milk, which was believed (erroneously) to be pure and untainted. Suddenly, goats were widely praised as humanity’s saviors. Over a century later, the business of goat dairy products production is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. The reputation of goats has also expanded in new and surprising ways. Goat keeping in cities has spread as a popular form of urban homesteading. And who could have predicted the advent of goat yoga as a worldwide cultural phenomenon? Ultimately the evolving reputation of goats in American history says more about human anxieties and cultural change than it does goats themselves.
Day/Time: Thursday, March 12, 3:30–5:30 pm EST.
Online: Register to attend remotely
Questions: contact Dr. Rebecca Beausaert or Dr. Ben Bradley.
Tami Parr
Image courtesy of tamiparr.com.
Rural History Roundtable events are sponsored by the Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professorship in Rural History.
