Keepers of the Flame: The Role of Fire in American Culture, 1775-1925

For, Lo! We live in an Iron Age–In the age of Steam and Fire! wrote a poet mesmerized by the engines that were transforming American transportation, agriculture, and industry during his lifetime. Indeed, by the nineteenth century fire had become America’s leitmotif–for good and for ill. Keeping the flame was deadly serious: even the slightest