This smartly written and well-informed book focuses on a subject that very few people think about - the history of home heating in America... The writing flows well, making it an enjoyable read. The scholarship is sound. Choice Sean Patrick Adams's slim study touches lightly on this hot topic... The stove does not just heat; it allows us to see ... Read morethe 'connections we all have to wider networks of production, distribution, and consumption.
Eric Rauchway Times Literary Supplement Home Fires is easily the most thorough and best-grounded account of the coal-based system of heating in the nineteenth-century United States. On the matters it considers, the book is authoritative. Adams, in addition, writes engagingly, constantly illustrating his general points with striking details and vignettes gleaned from extensive research, chiefly in printed primary and secondary sources.
William B. Meyer New England Quarterly Adams's Home Fires does, indeed, tell a fascinating story in the well-researched methodology of a trained and experienced historian, with a keen interest in using history to learn how to deal with the pressing issues of the future. Journal of American Culture Adams's Home Fires does, indeed, tell a fascinating story in the well-researched methodology of a trained and experienced historian, with a keen interest in using history to learn how to deal with the pressing issues of the future. Journal of American Culture Show Less