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Amber Fogle Sergent

Bio: Amber Fogle Sergent is an academic researcher. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 40 citations.

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01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: Haggin's Elmendorf Farm as mentioned in this paper was one of the most successful breeding and milking farms in modern agricultural history, but it also failed due to its acquisitive nature and aggressive nature.
Abstract: OF DISSERTATION “THE PASTIME OF MILLIONS”: JAMES B. HAGGIN’S ELMENDORF FARM AND THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF PEDIGREE ANIMAL BREEDING, 1897-1920 Called “The Pride of the Bluegrass,” Elmendorf Farm changed the style and substance of commercial pedigree breeding in early twentieth-century America. Between 1897 and 1914, James B. Haggin readily transformed the Kentucky farm first as a nationally preeminent horse stud, famous for its bloodlines and scales, and second as a premier dairy operation, exceptional for its sanitation, science, and size. Here rested the large-scale production of the world’s fanciest Thoroughbreds and finest milk. At the same time, Haggin’s farm reflected a lifestyle that has come to be celebrated and cherished as the ideal Kentucky landscape. A factory-style plant of large scales, of specialization, and vertical integration was disguised with the lavish iconography of portico mansions, rolling lawns, and white-planed fences, behind which million-dollar animals grazed on lush bluegrass. But a crucial, and significant, characteristic of this farm was the wage laborers who performed the back-breaking work. The labor and lives of the farm’s black workers, in particular, shows how Elmendorf helped reinforce a system of labor relations in central Kentucky, one peculiar to horse business and one segmented by race. Ultimately, this study of Elmendorf Farm shows the unforgettable imprint of Haggin’s complex personality, as well as his modern philosophies of business, but it also demonstrates conclusively the fallacy of an acquisitive nature and aggressive impulses in commercial animal breeding. As a powerful financier in the late nineteenth-century, Haggin’s perpetual objective was ever “large economies of scale.” Haggin made and lost fortunes by creating great industrial enterprises, and his Bluegrass stud proved no different—even if his individual actions meant defying the norm and jeopardizing entire industries. This best explains why the world’s greatest breeding and milking farm, in many ways, failed. When Haggin applied a dual logic of industrial and aristocratic expansion to a Kentucky breeding farm, the pedigree industry, however fragile and vulnerable, was pushed to extremes and instability of both horse and milk industries resulted. Those famed marble columns, the remaining evidence of Elmendorf Farm, now stands in a lush Bluegrass field, representing one of the most spectacular failures in modern agricultural history.

40 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the history of relationships within and between different groups in the United States, and the complexities of those relations are explored, including gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and class.
Abstract: MC 281 is the second in the required sophomore sequence for Social Relations and Policy. In this course, we will explore the interactions and experiences between and among various groups in American history. We will consider how Americans both defended and contested prevailing definitions of fitness for citizenship and inclusion in the political process and American life, and how groups sought to gain access to social and political equality. This course focuses on the history of relationships within and between different groups in the United States, and explores the complexities of those relations. Rarely centered solely on race or ethnicity, such interactions were also affected by gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and class. We will also explore the shifting definitions of race and ethnicity. Students will analyze not only the experiences of the different groups, but also the connections between them to assess the larger dynamics and their implications for public policy.

766 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century as mentioned in this paper is a book about black leadership, politics, and culture in the twenty-first century.
Abstract: (1997). Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 55-55.

186 citations

01 Jan 1949
TL;DR: Advances in Agronomy as discussed by the authors is a collection of advances in agronomy published under the auspices of the American Society of AgronOME. Vol. 3, No. 3.
Abstract: Advances in AgronomyPrepared under the auspices of the American Society of Agronomy. Vol. 3. Edited by A. G. Norman. Pp. x + 361. (New York: Academic Press, Inc., 1951.) 7.80 dollars.

166 citations