City Water, City Life: Water and the Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing Philadelphia, Boston, and ChicagoA city is more than a massing of citizens, a layout of buildings and streets, or an arrangement of political, economic, and social institutions. It is also an infrastructure of ideas that are a support for the beliefs, values, and aspirations of the people who created the city. In City Water, City Life, celebrated historian Carl Smith explores this concept through an insightful examination of the development of the first successful waterworks systems in Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago between the 1790s and the 1860s. By examining the place of water in the nineteenth-century consciousness, Smith illuminates how city dwellers perceived themselves during the great age of American urbanization. But City Water, City Life is more than a history of urbanization. It is also a refreshing meditation on water as a necessity, as a resource for commerce and industry, and as an essential—and central—part of how we define our civilization. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
Bringing Water to Philadelphia Boston and Chicago | 11 |
Water Urban Society and the Public Good | 53 |
Water and the Reconciliation of the Natural and the Urban | 121 |
The Sanitary Movement the Temperance Crusade and the Water Cure | 161 |
Other editions - View all
City Water, City Life: Water and the Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing ... Carl Smith Limited preview - 2013 |
City Water, City Life: Water and the Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing ... Carl Smith No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
American Annual Report ofthe aqueduct artificial bathing benefit Benjamin Henry Latrobe Benjamin Latrobe body Bostonians Bradlee building Canal celebration Centre Square Chesbrough Chicago River Chicago Tribune citizens City Council City Document City of Boston City of Chicago City of Philadelphia city water city’s civic Common Council ofthe Company construction cost Council ofthe City Daily Advertiser Daily Evening Transcript debt Fairmount Fairmount Park Faneuil Hall figure financial fire first five flow fountain human hydropathy individual Introduction ofPure Water John Lake Cochituate Lake Michigan lake tunnel Latrobe’s Long Pond Massachusetts nature Office officials ofthe Board ofPublic ofthe City ofChicago ofWater one’s pipes population pumping Pure Water reflected Report ofthe Board reservoir residents river Sanitary Schuylkill Schuylkill Canal Schuylkill River Select and Common Shattuck significant specific Spot Pond sufficient temperance tion University Press urban Walter Channing Water Commissioners water cure water supply water system Watering Committee waterworks William York
Bibliographic information
| Title | City Water, City Life: Water and the Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago |
| Author | Carl Smith |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press, 2013 |
| ISBN | 022602265X, 9780226022659 |
| Length | 360 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / General History / United States / 19th Century Literary Criticism / American / General Technology & Engineering / Environmental / Water Supply |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |