Research Catalog

Title

Fire : a brief history / Stephen J. Pyne ; foreword by William Cronon.

Author

Pyne, Stephen J., 1949-

Publication

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2001], ©2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvii, 204 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

• "Here, in one book, is the essential story of fire. Noted environmental historian Stephen J. Pyne describes the evolution of fire through prehistoric and historic times down to the present, examining contemporary attitudes from a long-range, informed perspective. Fire: A Brief History surveys the principles behind aboriginal and agricultural fire practices, the characteristics of urban fire, and the relationship between controlled combustion and technology.
• Pyne describes how fire's role in cities, suburbs, exurbs, and wildlands has been shaped by a industrialized, urban way of thinking." "Fire: A Brief History will be of value to readers interested in the environment from the standpoint of anthropology, geography, forestry, science and technology, history, or the humanities."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

• Cycle of fire
• Weyerhaeuser environmental books
• Pyne, Stephen J., 1949- Cycle of fire.

Uniform Title

Weyerhaeuser environmental book.

Subject

Fire > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-193) and index.

Contents

• Foreword: Small Book, Big Story / William Cronon -- Introduction: Kindling -- 1. Fire and Earth: Creating Combustion. How Fire Came to Be. How Life Accommodated Fire. First Fire Today. Touched by Fire -- 2. Frontiers of Fire (Part 1): Fire Colonizing by Hominids. What Made Early Fires Effective. First Contact: When Fire Arrives. Lost Contact: When Fire Departs -- 3. Aboriginal Fire: Controlling the Spark. Why They Burned. Where and How They Burned. Dying Fire: When the Firestick Leaves -- 4. Agricultural Fire: Cultivating Fuel. The Fire in Agriculture's Hearth. How to Cultivate Fire. What They Meant to Each Other. Rites of Fire -- 5. Frontiers of Fire (Part 2): Fire Colonizing by Agriculture. How Conversion Leads to Colonization. Stories from the Fire Frontier. Comings and Goings of Agricultural Fire Today -- 6. Urban Fire: Building Habitats for Fire. Hearth and House: Making a Home for Fire. Built to Burn: A Fire Ecology for the City Combustible.
• The Eternal Flame Invisible: Fire in the Industrial City -- 7. Pyrotechnics: Fire and Technology. Prometheus Unchained. Cycles of Pyrotechnology: How Fire Has Cooked the Earth. Fire Powers: Controlled - and Not-So-Controlled - Fire as Mover and Shaker. Fire in the Mind -- 8. Frontiers of Fire (Part 3): Fire Colonizing by Europe. How Europe Expanded Fire's Realm. How Europe Contained Fire's Realm. How Europe Redefined Fire's Realm -- 9. Industrial Fire: Stoking the Big Burn. How Industrial Combustion Has Added Fire. How Industrial Combustion Has Subtracted Fire. How Industrial Combustion Has Rearranged Fire Regimes -- 10. The Future of Fire: Burning Beyond the Millennium. As the World Burns: What Is and Isn't Burning, and Where. Still the Keeper of the Flame.

ISBN

029598144X (alk. paper)

LCCN

2001035593

OCLC

• ocm46936087
• SCSB-4207076

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries