Keepers of the Flame: The Role of Fire in American Culture, 1775-1925

(Hardback)

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"For, Lo! We live in an Iron Age--In the age of Steam and Fire!" wrote a poet mesmerized by the engines that were transforming American transportation, agriculture, and industry during his lifetime. Indeed, by the nineteenth century fire had become America's leitmotif--for good and for ill. "Keeping the flame" was deadly serious: even the slightest

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"This entertaining book gives a cultural overview of the role and significance of fire in U.S. society from the founding of the Republic to the early twentieth century... The authors have pulled together an enormous number of sources, including newspaper accounts, advertising, diaries, corporate records, scientific and medical papers, popular art, music, poetry, and drama."--The Historian