Description
By the mid-nineteenth century, efforts to modernize and industrialize Mexico City had the unintended consequence of exponentially increasing the danger of fireside whilst also breeding a culture of fear. Through an array of archival sources, Anna Rose Alexander argues that fireplace become a catalyst for social change, as residents mobilized to confront the issue. Advances in engineering and medicine soon fostered the upward push of distinct fields of fireside-related expertise whilst conversely, the upward push of fireside-profiteering industries allowed entrepreneurs to capitalize on crisis.
City on Fire demonstrates that both private and non-private engagements with fire risk highlight the inequalities that characterized Mexican society on the turn of the 20th century.