American Sheep introduces the “remarkable story” of how sheep helped shape American history from the colonial era through the early twentieth century. By introducing the readers to a cast of characters—some forgotten and some famous—whose lives intersected with sheep, the book illuminates the roles the animals played in the “growth and development of the United States.” John Brown’s relationship with sheep, for example, reveals how “sheep culture influenced racial relations.” And John Muir’s fears about sheep grazing in Yosemite were central to the development of the environmental movement his name is most often attached to. American Sheep, in other words, is a book that shears away our misunderstandings of the past and weaves sheep into the fabric of American economic and social history.