Eating smoke : fire in urban America, 1800-1950 / Mark Tebeau.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tebeau, Mark.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fire extinction--United States--History.

Fire extinction.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

xi, 425 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Summary:

During the Period of America's swiftest industrialization and urban growth, fire struck fear in the hearts of city dwellers as did no other calamity. Before the Civil War, in the nation's largest cities, sweeping blazes killed hundreds of people and destroyed more than $200 million in property. Between 1871 and 1906, conflagrations left Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and San Francisco in ruins. In the early twentieth century, the dangers of fire intensified as cities grew taller and more populous. The death-defying feats of firemen captured the popular imagination but in the face of true disaster could provide little more than symbolic protection. Hundreds of fire insurance companies went bankrupt after paying out claims.

In Eating Smoke, Mark Tebeau shows how the changing practices of firefighers, the strategies of insurers, and the rise of urban building codes eventually combined to conquer the popular fear of fire while also shaping the built landscape of American cities. Drawing on a wealth of fire department and insurance company archives, he contrasts the heroic culture of firefighters with the rational, even tedious work of fire underwriters. Constantly experimenting with new equipment and tactics, firefighters fought fire ever more aggressively -- "eating smoke" as they ventured deep into burning buildings or when they scaled ladders to perform harrowing rescues. Underwriters arrived at the view that risk was quantifiable, measurable, and predictable; they managed hazard with statistics, maps, and trade associations, and they ultimately won the fight for building codes and other fire-related reforms, which cities throughout the nation implemented in the twentieth century. Although firefighters remained icons of heroism, their cultural authority and institutional liberties slowly diminished. Americans had begun to deal with fire risk as an economic abstraction. Exploring tensions between the masculine drama of firefighting (climbing ladders and developing ever more powerful engines) and the mundane technologies of insurers (detailed maps and risk-assessment charts), Tebeau demonstrates how the daily routines and work cultures of both groups succeeded in making urban growth and industrial expansion less precarious in modern America.

Contents:

Introduction: The Problem of Fire 1

Part I. Smoke

1 Workshops of Democracy: The Invention of Volunteer Firefighting 13

2 The Business of Safety: The American Fire Insurance Industry, 1800-1850 54

Part II. Fire

3 Statistics, Maps, and Morals: Making Fire Risk Objective, 1850-1875 89

4 Muscle and Steam: Establishing Municipal Fire Departments, 1850-1875 126

Part III. Water

5 Disciplining the City: Everyday Practice and Mapping Risk, 1875-1900 169

6 Becoming Heroes: A New Standard for Urban Fire Safety, 1875-1900 202

Part IV. Paper

7 Consuming Safety: Fire Prevention and Fire Risk in the Twentieth Century 247

8 Eating Smoke: Rational Heroes in the Twentieth Century 285

Conclusion: Fighting Fire in Postwar America 327

Appendix 1 Firefighting by the Numbers 343

Appendix 2 Firefighting Careers 348.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [357]-413) and index.

ISBN:

0801867916

OCLC:

50803699