For the true story of the heroic firefighter's role in urban America, turn to Tebeau's investigative account. University of Chicago Magazine Tebeau develops an interwoven story of gender, class, culture, and technology: contrasting the heroics of working-class firefighters with the rational order of middle-class fire underwriters... An engaging narrative and a fascinating story make this book a rare pleasure-both an ... Read moreacademic monograph and a good read.
Dalit Baranoff EH.Net Emblazed against a historic backdrop of 150 years, Eating Smoke chronicles the parallel development of US firefighting forces and the fire insurance industry. Choice In his ambitious and detailed new book, Eating Smoke, Tebeau sets out to explain the role of two largely undocumented actors-firemen and insurance men-in analyzing, managing, and attacking urban fire... Tebeau's study vigorously opens the way for scholars looking to make sense of the city in the midst of an era of uncertainty and risk.
Scott Gabriel Knowles Enterprise and Society A rich and highly informative work that deftly uses the 'problem' of urban fire to cast light on a wide array of turn-of-the-century transformations. American Historical Review For business historians its fascination may well lie in its combination of an active physical workforce who were banded together methodically in local pump houses and were tamed by a managerial and bureaucratic set of rules and procedures that were monitored by, if not subjected to, the guidelines of insurers.
Margaret Walsh Business History In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the destructive power of fire posed a major obstacle to the development of urban America... Eating Smoke is a richly detailed chronicle of the two types of effort to confront and contain this vulnerability: firefighting and fire insurance.
Carol Chetkovich Journal of Interdisciplinary History Tebeau's ambitious, informative, and absorbing book explains, among many other fascinating things, why little boys want to become firemen and not fire-insurance brokers.
Carl Smith Business History Review Show Less