Description
Book SynopsisThis perspective allows a unique view of the development of an industrial society not just from the ground up but from the hearth up.
Trade ReviewThis smartly written and well-informed book focuses on a subject that very few people think about - the history of home heating in America... The writing flows well, making it an enjoyable read. The scholarship is sound. Choice Sean Patrick Adams's slim study touches lightly on this hot topic... The stove does not just heat; it allows us to see the 'connections we all have to wider networks of production, distribution, and consumption. -- Eric Rauchway Times Literary Supplement Home Fires is easily the most thorough and best-grounded account of the coal-based system of heating in the nineteenth-century United States. On the matters it considers, the book is authoritative. Adams, in addition, writes engagingly, constantly illustrating his general points with striking details and vignettes gleaned from extensive research, chiefly in printed primary and secondary sources. -- William B. Meyer New England Quarterly Adams's Home Fires does, indeed, tell a fascinating story in the well-researched methodology of a trained and experienced historian, with a keen interest in using history to learn how to deal with the pressing issues of the future. Journal of American Culture Adams's Home Fires does, indeed, tell a fascinating story in the well-researched methodology of a trained and experienced historian, with a keen interest in using history to learn how to deal with the pressing issues of the future. Journal of American Culture
Table of ContentsPreface
Prologue
1. How the Industrial Economy Made the Stove
2. How Mineral Heat Came to American Cities
3. How the Coal Trade Made Heat Cheap
4. How the Industrial Hearth Defied Control
5. How Steam Heat Found Its Limits
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Further Reading
Index
