Eating smoke : fire in urban America, 1800-1950 /
Mark Tebeau.
- Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, (c)2003.
- 1 online resource (xi, 425 pages) : illustrations.
Includes bibliographies and index.
The problem of fire -- I: Smoke -- Workshops of democracy: the invention of volunteer firefighting -- The business of safety: the American fire insurance industry, 800-1850 -- II: Fire -- Statistics, maps, and morals: making fire risk objective, 1850-1875 -- Muscle and steam: establishing municipal fire departments, 1850-1875 -- III: Water -- Disciplining the city: everyday practice and mapping risk, 1875-1900 -- Becoming heroes: a new standard for urban fire safety, 1875-1900 -- IV: Paper -- Consuming safety: fire prevention and fire risk in the twentieth century -- Eating smoke: rational heroes in the twentieth century -- Fighting fire in postwar America.
"Shows how the changing practices of firefighters, 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."--Cover.