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The Smoke of London uncovers the origins of urban air pollution, two centuries before the industrial revolution. By 1600, London was a fossil-fuelled city, its high-sulfur coal a basic necessity for the poor and a source of cheap energy for its growing manufacturing sector. The resulting smoke was found ugly and dangerous throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, leading to challenges in court, suppression by the crown, doctors' attempts to understand the nature of good air, increasing suburbanization, and changing representations of urban life in poetry and on the London stage. Neither a celebratory account of proto-environmentalism nor a declensionist narrative of degradation, The Smoke of London recovers the seriousness of pre-modern environmental concerns even as it explains their limits and failures. Ultimately, Londoners learned to live with their dirty air, an accommodation that reframes the modern process of urbanization and industrial pollution, both in Britain and beyond.
Sommario
Prologue: the smoke of London; Part I. Transformations: 1. The early modernity of London; 2. Fires: London's turn to coal, 1575-1775; 3. Airs: smoke and pollution, 1600-1775; Part II. Contestations: 4. Royal spaces: palaces and brewhouses, 1575-1640; 5. Nuisance and neighbours; 6. Smoke in the scientific revolution; Part III. Fueling Leviathan: 7. The moral economy of fuel: coal, poverty, and necessity; 8. Fueling improvement: development, navigation, and revenue; 9. Regulations: policing markets and suppliers; 10. Protections: the wartime coal trade; Part IV. Accommodations: 11. Evelyn's place: fumifugium and the royal retreat from urban smoke; 12. Representations: coal smoke as urban life; 13. Movements: avoiding the smoky city; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.
Info autore
William M. Cavert is a historian of early modern Britain focusing on urban and environmental history, holding a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, Illinois. He has published 'The Environmental Policy of Charles I: Coal Smoke and the English Monarchy, 1624–1640' in the Journal of British Studies, as well as related studies in Global Environment and Urban History. His work has been supported by grants from The Mellon Foundation, the Huntington Library, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, Northwestern University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of St Thomas, Minnesota, and by a fellowship at Clare College, Cambridge. His current research examines Britain during the Little Ice Age, focusing on cold winters, disasters, and relationships with animals.
Riassunto
London was the early modern world's most polluted city, and its dependence on coal had profound consequences for public health, the environment, and ultimately politics and culture. William M. Cavert presents a detailed study of how inhabitants and travelers accommodated themselves to London's smoky air.
