City on fire : technology, social change, and the hazards of progress in Mexico City, 1860-1910 /
Anna Rose Alexander.
- Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, (c)2016.
- 1 online resource.
- History of the urban environment .
Includes bibliographies and index.
Acknowledgments; Introduction: Modernity and Its Accidents; Chapter One. Fighting Fire, Fighting Fear; Chapter Two. Science of Regulation; Chapter Three. Controlling the Flames-The Fire Brigade; Chapter Four. Engineering Safety; Chapter Five. Inventing Protection; Chapter Six. Insuring Progress; Chapter Seven. Healing the Hazardous City; Conclusion; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index.
"By the mid-nineteenth century, efforts to modernize and industrialize Mexico City had the unintended consequence of exponentially increasing the risk of fire while also breeding a culture of fear. Through an array of archival sources, Anna Rose Alexander argues that fire became a catalyst for social change, as residents mobilized to confront the problem. Advances in engineering and medicine soon fostered the rise of distinct fields of fire-related expertise while conversely, the rise of fire-profiteering industries allowed entrepreneurs to capitalize on crisis. City on Fire demonstrates that both public and private engagements with fire risk highlight the inequalities that characterized Mexican society at the turn of the twentieth century"-- "City on Fire is a chronicle of progress and danger, that integrates urban environmental history with histories of technology, science, and medicine to reveal how Mexico City changed in response to the growing threat of fire in the urban center"--
9780822981466
Social medicine--History.--Mexico--Mexico City Science--Social aspects--History.--Mexico--Mexico City Technology--Social aspects--History.--Mexico--Mexico City Urban ecology (Sociology)--History.--Mexico--Mexico City Social change--History.--Mexico--Mexico City City and town life--History.--Mexico--Mexico City Fire prevention--History.--Mexico--Mexico City Fires--Social aspects--History.--Mexico--Mexico City