City on fire : technology, social change, and the hazards of progress in Mexico City, 1860-1910 / Anna Rose Alexander.
"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"--
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pittsburgh, Pa. :
University of Pittsburgh Press,
[2016]
|
| Series: | History of the urban environment.
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "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"-- "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"-- |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | x, 224 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-218) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780822964186 082296418X |