HOLD YOUR HORSES!
A Feedbag Full of Fact and Fable
by Milton Meltzer
To a book about horses, Meltzer (Cheap Raw Material, 1994, etc.) brings his perspective on all things cultural and, apart from supplying readers with a wealth of facts, poses questions concerning the psychology of the horse and the people and cultures associated with it. The only deficiency is a structural one. The lens is first wonderfully wide-angled: Meltzer begins with the evolution of the horse from prehistoric times and then takes readers from the Middle East to Europe and Asia, through Antiquity, Islam, the Middle Ages, and the Crimean War. Suddenly the perspective shrinks: the next hundred pages focus almost solely on the New World and the US. In short, the beginning of the book promises more than it delivers, and in the shift from a truly global perspective to an American one, becomes limited in its use. Still, a worthwhile read. (Nonfiction. 8-12)