Fire in America

by Pyne, Stephen J.

• ISBN13: 9780295975924
• ISBN10: 029597592X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

From prehistory to the present-day conservation movement, Pyne explores the efforts of successive American cultures to master wildfire and to use it to shape the landscape."On rare occasions, the historical literature is enriched by the introduction of a broad new field for study, by a book that dramatically expands the boundaries of scholarly investigation. Stephen Pyne'sFire in Americais such a book. It achieves the Promethean goal of bringing fire to history." --Science"This unusual and imaginative work takes a phenomenon that seems at first glance to be so elemental as to have no history and no evolution, and gives it a dynamic role in the drama of American advance from frontier through agricultural to industrial society. By integrating the history of fire with ecology, agriculture, logging, and resource management, Pyne has made a unique contribution to the history of science and technology, as well as to cultural history in general." --Isis"Stephen J. Pyne compels our admiration for his gargantuan ambition and richly informed intelligence. He tells us more than anyone else to date has about the role of fire in the landscape, tells us we have been wrong in assuming a pristine state of nature before the white man's invasion, tells us what fire has meant to the rise of civilization and this nation. No one interested in environmental history can afford to ignore this massive achievement." --Journal of American History

Author Biography

Stephen J. Pyne is professor of history at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Preface to the 1997 Paperback Edition	p. xv
Preface to the Original Edition: History with Fire in Its Eye	p. xix
Abbeviations	p. xxii
Prologue: The Smoke of Time	p. 3
Nature's Fire	p. 6
Electrical Fire: A Natural History of Lightning Fire	p. 8
The Fire Environment: Principles of Fire Behavior	p. 20
Fire and Life: Principles of Fire Ecology	p. 34
The Burned-Over Districts: A Fire History of the Northeast	p. 45
The Fire from Asia	p. 66
Our Grandfather Fire: Fire and the American Indian	p. 71
These Conflagrated Prairies: A Fire History of the Grasslands	p. 84
Paiute Forestry: A History of the Light-Burning Controversy	p. 100
The Fire from Europe	p. 123
Prometheus Bound: Fire and Europe	p. 126
Our Pappies Burned the Woods: A Fire History of the South	p. 143
Fire Wolves and Smokey Bears: A History of Fire Prevention	p. 161
The Great Barbecue	p. 181
The Dragon Devastation: Fire and the Counterreclamation	p. 184
Sky of Brass, Earth of Ash: A Fire History of the Lake States	p. 199
From Fire and Axe: Private and Early Government Fire Protection	p. 219
The Heroic Age	p. 239
1910: A Fire History of the Northern Rockies	p. 242
The Forester's Policy: A History of Fire Policy in the U.S. Forest Service	p. 260
A Moral and Legal Charge: A History of Fire Policy in the Department of the Interior and Interagency Organizations	p. 295
A Continental Experiment	p. 322
Fire and Water: A Fire History of the Northwest	p. 327
Cross Fire: Fire Protection by the States	p. 346
Under Fire: A History of Manpower in Fire Control	p. 360
The Cold War on Fire	p. 387
Firepower: Fire and Warfare	p. 390
A Burned-Out Case: A Fire History of Southern California	p. 404
The Best Tools: A History of Fire Equipment	p. 424
The Red Menace: A History of Rural Fire Defense	p. 450
Fields of Fire	p. 462
The Thermal Pulse: A History of Wildland Fire Research	p. 467
Fire and Frost: A Fire History of Alaska	p. 497
Fire on the Mountain: A Fire History of the Southwest	p. 514
Epilogue: The Forbidden Flame	p. 530
Bibliographic Abbreviations	p. 534
Notes	p. 535
Bibliographic Essay	p. 618
Index	p. 627
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