City Water, City Life - Water Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing Philadelphia, Boston,

Just as the internet has, over past decades, prompted reconsiderations of the nature of human sociability (among other things), the water systems of the nineteenth century represented a new way of both bonding and dividing people, and urban dwellers thought actively about the implications. As Smith moves from Philadelphia to Boston to Chicago, Smithexamines a staggeringly broad range of sources from public health reports to poetry, demonstrating that water delivery was not just a core urban technology it was at the very core of the American imagination. This book will be of great interest to those interested in the history of culture, technology, and the environment, as well as to those who are concerned about rights and sustainability in the cities of today."

About the author

Carl Smith is the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English and American Studies and professor of history at Northwestern University. His books include three prize-winning volumes: Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, 1880-1920; Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman; and The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City, the latter two published by the University of Chicago Press.

Summary

A city is more than a massing of citizens, a layout of buildings and streets, or an arrangement of political, economic, and social institutions. By examining the place of water in the nineteenth-century consciousness, the author illuminates how city dwellers perceived themselves during the great age of American urbanization.

Product details

• Authors: Carl Smith
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.04.2014
• EAN: 9780226151595
• ISBN: 978-0-226-15159-5
• No. of pages: 344
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / General, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Urban communities, Water industries