The smoke of London : energy and environment in the early modern city / William M. Cavert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cavert, William M., author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Series:

Cambridge studies in early modern British history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Smoke--Environmental aspects--England--London--History.

Smoke.

Air--Pollution--England--London--History.

Air.

Air--Pollution--Social aspects--England--London--History.

Coal--Environmental aspects--United States.

Coal.

Air--Pollution.

Air--Pollution--Social aspects.

Coal--Environmental aspects.

Smoke--Environmental aspects.

History.

England--London.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xix, 274 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Summary:

"The Smoke of London uncovers the origins of urban air pollution, two centuries before the industrial revolution. By 1600, London was a fossil-fueled city, its high-sulfur coal a basic necessity for the poor and a source of cheap energy for its growing manufacturing sector. The resulting smoke was found ugly and dangerous throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, leading to challenges in court, suppression by the crown, doctors' attempts to understand the nature of good air, increasing suburbanization, and changing representations of urban life in poetry and on the London stage. Neither a celebratory account of proto-environmentalism nor a declensionist narrative of degradation, The Smoke of London recovers the seriousness of pre-modern environmental concerns even as it explains their limits and failures. Ultimately, Londoners learned to live with their dirty air, an accommodation that reframes the modern process of urbanization and industrial pollution, both in Britain and beyond"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Prologue: the smoke of London; Part I. Transformations: 1. The early modernity of London; 2. Fires: London's turn to coal, 1575-1775; 3. Airs: smoke and pollution, 1600-1775; Part II. Contestations: 4. Royal spaces: palaces and brewhouses, 1575-1640; 5. Nuisance and neighbours; 6. Smoke in the scientific revolution; Part III. Fuelling Leviathan: 7. The moral economy of fuel: coal, poverty, and necessity; 8. Fuelling improvement: development, navigation, and revenue; 9. Regulations: policing markets and suppliers; 10. Protections: the wartime coal trade; Part IV. Accommodations: 11. Evelyn's place: fumifugium and the royal retreat from urban smoke; 12. Representations: coal smoke as urban life; 13. Movements: avoiding the smoky city; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781107073005

1107073006

OCLC:

939277642

Online:

Cover image