All That Is Solid Bursts into Flame: Capitalism and Fire in the Nineteenth-Century United States

IF 1.8 1区 历史学 Q1 HISTORY Past & Present Pub Date : 2024-03-09 DOI:10.1093/pastj/gtad019
Daniel Immerwahr
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Abstract

Industrial capitalism arrived in Europe as great urban fires were already retreating. The United States, however, was generously timbered and far more reliant on wooden construction. As a result, its infernos continued, and even increased, well into its age of capital. They especially struck places of intense commodification: hastily built settler towns, slave cities, financial centres and sites of mineral extraction. Noting the connection between fire and capitalism, a class of upwardly mobile strivers came to appreciate fires for their ability to disrupt social hierarchies, reset property relations and nurture economic dynamism. Oddly, many who had suffered fires even interpreted them as ‘blessings in disguise’. This pyrophilia was not universal, however, and the richest men of the Gilded Age strenuously opposed it, seeking instead to fireproof the environment. The clash between pyrophobes and pyrophiles was between economic incumbents and economic insurgents, and it touched on many areas of late nineteenth-century culture. Familiar Gilded Age artefacts such as Chicago’s White City and L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz can be productively understood in terms of this widespread fight over the value of fire, and thus the shape of capitalism.
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所有坚固的东西都会迸发出火焰:十九世纪美国的资本主义与火灾
工业资本主义传入欧洲时,城市大火已经退去。然而,美国林木茂盛,更依赖于木制建筑。因此,美国的火灾一直持续到资本时代,甚至愈演愈烈。它们尤其袭击了商品化程度高的地方:匆忙建造的移民城镇、奴隶城市、金融中心和矿产开采地。注意到火灾与资本主义之间的联系,一个上进的奋斗者阶层开始欣赏火灾,因为它能够打破社会等级制度、重置财产关系并培育经济活力。奇怪的是,许多遭受过火灾的人甚至将火灾解释为 "不幸中的万幸"。然而,这种 "恋火癖 "并不普遍,镀金时代最富有的人极力反对火灾,转而寻求对环境进行防火处理。嗜火者与嗜火者之间的冲突是经济执政者与经济起义者之间的冲突,涉及十九世纪晚期文化的许多领域。芝加哥的白城和弗兰克-鲍姆(L. Frank Baum)的《绿野仙踪》(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)等镀金时代的著名作品,都可以从这场关于火的价值以及资本主义形态的广泛争论中得到有益的理解。
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来源期刊
Past & Present
Past & Present Multiple-
CiteScore
2.80
自引率
5.60%
发文量
49
期刊介绍: Founded in 1952, Past & Present is widely acknowledged to be the liveliest and most stimulating historical journal in the English-speaking world. The journal offers: •A wide variety of scholarly and original articles on historical, social and cultural change in all parts of the world. •Four issues a year, each containing five or six major articles plus occasional debates and review essays. •Challenging work by young historians as well as seminal articles by internationally regarded scholars. •A range of articles that appeal to specialists and non-specialists, and communicate the results of the most recent historical research in a readable and lively form. •A forum for debate, encouraging productive controversy.
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