![]() ![]() The development of waterworks forced city dwellers to re-evaluate their interdependence and their relationship to the environment. In the words and imagery of observers, public water became an impetus for collective action, evidence of human ingenuity, a purifier of social contamination, and a blessing for posterity. ![]() As city leaders struggled to slake the thirst and quench the fires of their growing cities, they diverted the stuff of lakes and rivers into tunnels and pumps and hydrants, compelling residents to confront the idea of water as a public good. Arguing that “cities are built out of ideas,” Smith constructs his narrative using urban ideas about water and public waterworks (2). Crisp, clean, and occasionally sparkling, City Water, City Life offers a cultural history of waterworks in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia from about 1790 to 1870. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |