City on Fire: Technology, Social Change, and the Hazards of Progress in Mexico City, 1860-1910

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.

Author: Anna Rose Alexander
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Published: 05/31/2016
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780822964186

About the Author
Anna Rose Alexander is assistant professor of history at California State University, East Bay.