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Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: > From: "H-Net Staff" <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > Date: July 19, 2017 at 11:10:10 AM EDT > To: "" <h-rev...@h-net.msu.edu> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Boyer on Alexander, 'City on Fire: Technology, Social Change, and the Hazards of Progress in Mexico City, 1860-1910' > Reply-To: "H-Net Staff" <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > > Anna Rose Alexander. City on Fire: Technology, Social Change, and > the Hazards of Progress in Mexico City, 1860-1910. History of the > Urban Environment Series. Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh Press, > 2016. 216 pp. $26.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8229-6418-6. > > Reviewed by Christopher Boyer > Published on H-LatAm (July, 2017) > Commissioned by Andrae Marak > > Nineteenth-century cities were landscapes. Rapidly growing > metropolises like Mexico City faced particular perils thanks to > slapdash and oftentimes unplanned construction. The appearance of new > and potentially dangerous buildings, including match factories, > textile mills, and theaters, only added to the threat of catastrophic > fires that had to be extinguished with bucket brigades before the > advent of fire departments equipped with pumps and other specialized > tools. In the face of urban growth and modernization, property > owners, municipal authorities, and average citizens in Mexico's > capital recognized that some kind of systematic response would be > necessary to protect their lives and their property. Political and > economic instability made such an endeavor all but impossible in the > first half of the century, but that changed once Porfirio Díaz came > to power in 1876. For the rest of the century and into the first > decade of the next, administrative reforms and private-sector > innovation brought modern firefighting, as well as modern municipal > codes, medicine, and indemnity practices, to Mexico City. > > This is the story that Anna Rose Alexander tells in _City on Fire: > Technology, Social Change, and the Hazards of Progress in Mexico > City, 1860-1910_. The first chapters trace the development of a > professional fighting apparatus in response to the city's changing > urban environment. Initially, municipal leaders hoped that > civic-minded men from the upper classes would volunteer for duty as > part-time firefighters. Although Alexander does not specifically > mention it, this scheme echoed the voluntary militias--often headed > by these selfsame elite males--that conferred honor on their members. > Whether because militias represented more attractive propositions or > simply because the hard, sooty work of firefighting did not appeal to > the comfortable classes, the volunteer brigades never thrived. In > quintessential Porfirian fashion, city administrators concluded they > should emulate their counterparts in the United States and Europe by > forming a full-time professional firefighting corps kitted out with > European-style uniforms and imported machinery. Alexander shows that > firefighters sometimes came under suspicion for fishing property from > victims or using antiquated tactics but that they often succeeded in > their primary duty of saving citizens' lives and property. > > One of the book's key analytic strengths is Alexander's ability to > enfold the history of fire with that of technology and professional > expertise. She examines the appearance of safety-minded building > codes, including the 1888 municipal legislation that addressed > theaters, whose admixture of electric lights, combustible film, and > large crowds could all to easily lead to tragedy. With new > regulations came new building inspectors composed of the ubiquitous > _ingeniero_, those educated professionals so emblematic of the > Porfiriato. Alexander shows that, like the firefighters themselves, > inspectors both mitigated potential disaster and ignited passive > resistance. Another set of experts employed by the Sanborn Fire > Insurance Map Company plotted maps intended for use by actu> Mexico City and > a few towns in the north of the country. Another > species of would-be engineers invented their own firefighting > apparatuses, which, as Alexander points out, undermines the > commonplace historiographic assumption that Mexico passively consumed > foreign technologies without developing its own. > > The final chapters address the sectors that emerged to address the > aftereffects of fire: insurance companies willing to write polices > that covered property loss and specialized medical attention for burn > victims. Alexander shows that the insurance companies not only > modernized Mexico's financial services sector but also sometimes > appropriated the role of moral arbiter and scolded property holders > for failing to take preventative steps. This was not necessarily a > purely humanitarian stance, as Alexander shows, since insurers also > tried to shift the blame or resort to technicalities to avoid paying > claims. On the human side of the equation, burn victims represented a > small but palpable proportion of trauma patients in Mexico City, > enough that some doctors followed the most recent medical advances in > professional journals. Alexander shows that one physician attempted a > skin graft in 1870 after reading about the technique, although the > patient in question suffered from advanced-stage gangrene rather than > burns. (One graft did take, but the patient died nevertheless.) Not > all medical treatments followed the most modern practices, however. > Home care for burn victims often made use of traditional approaches > and balms to alleviate victims' suffering. > > _City on Fire_ starts from a deceptively straightforward focus on > firefighting in Mexico City during the era in which industry, > electricity, and an emergent working class made it a more densely > populated and flammable place. Alexander quickly strides beyond the > flames themselves, however, to engage issues of technology, > expertise, and the advent of palliative measures, such as insurance > and medicine. The book is published as part of the University of > Pittsburgh Press's series in urban environmental history, and > Alexander succeeds admirably not only in painting the sorts of > environmental dangers posed by technological modernization and urban > growth but also in describing city folks' growing awareness of the > threats. We learn how market vendors' negligence with fire or lumber > could lead to tragedy, of the dangers caused by nitrate film base, > and many other facets of the combustible cityscape. We learn less > about how fire--and the efforts to mitigate its threat--actually > transformed that cityscape, however. Alexander expends relatively > little attention on questions of city planning, or the fate of areas > reduced by fire, or the extent to which new construction did or did > not take fire safety into account. On the other hand, Alexander does > pause to consider the expanding water infrastructure and how piping > and the placement of hydrants favored wealthy districts over poor > ones. > > _City on Fire_ will find a broad readership among historians > interested in the history of Mexico City, the urban environment, > medicine, and of course fire itself. Historians of technology will > find a particularly rich discussion. Rather than treating technology > such as firefighting equipment as an extrinsic factor whose arrival > in Mexico was responsible for creating historical change, Alexander > shows that municipal authorities and experts imported the > technologies they found most variable, ignored those practices and > devices they had no use for, and invented those they could not find > elsewhere. Her exemplary discussion to the interplay of domestic and > foreign knowledge points the way to a practice-based approach to > technology--one that suggests that, in matters of life and death, > effectiveness tends to trump national and conceptual boundaries. > > Citation: Christopher Boyer. Review of Alexander, Anna Rose, _City on > Fire:> Mexico City, 1860-1910_. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. July, 2017. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=48139 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -- _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
