Format:
1 online resource (252 pages)
ISBN:
9780807864081
Content:
Unlike the earthquakes and hurricanes that have influenced Caribbean history, the region's fires have almost always been caused by humans. Geographer Bonham C. Richardson explores the effects of fire in the social and ecological history of the British Lesser Antilles, from the British Virgin Islands south to Trinidad. Focusing on the late nineteenth century, leading to the 1905 withdrawal of British military forces from the region, Richardson shows how fire-lit social upheavals served as forerunners of political independence movements. Drawing on Caribbean and London archives as well as years of fieldwork, Richardson examines how villagers used, modified, and contemplated fire in part to vent their frustrations with a savage economic depression and social and political inequities imposed from afar. He examines fire in all its forms, from protest torches to sugarcane fires that threatened the islands' economic staple. Richardson illuminates a neglected period in Caribbean history by showing how local uses of fire have been catalysts and even causes of important changes in the region.
Content:
Intro -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Notes -- 1. Introduction -- The Study Region and Time Period -- Notes -- 2. Hazards, History, and Caribbean Fire -- Caribbean Fire in History -- Changing Regional Identities in the Late 1800s -- Notes -- 3. Fires in Towns and Cities -- Cannes Brulées -- ''A Terrible Calamity-A Gigantic Conflagration'' -- Kerosene -- Accidents and Arson -- Notes -- 4. Forestry and Bush Fires -- Imperial Forestry in the Caribbean -- Forest Clearance, Environmental Conservation, and Human Depravity -- ''The Harmfulness of Bush Fires'' -- Notes -- 5. Sugarcane Fires -- Sugarcane Cultivation in the Lesser Antilles in the 1890s -- Using Fire in Sugarcane Cultivation -- ''Night after Night'': Incendiarism in the Cane Fields -- Notes -- 6. Fire and Water -- ''Clear and Cold . . . Piped from the Reservoirs'' -- Fire Engines and Fire Brigades -- Fire Insurance -- Port of Spain's Water Supply -- Notes -- 7. Fires of Protest -- ''One Vast Wall of Fire and Flame'': St. Kitts in February 1896 -- ''Wrapped in Flames and Entirely Gutted'': The Trinidad Water Riot of March 1903 -- ''The Country Districts . . . All Ablaze'': St. Lucia in April 1907 -- Notes -- 8. Epilogue -- Notes -- Notes -- Abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Index -- A-C -- D-H -- I-P -- Q-T -- U-Z.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780807855232
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9780807855232
Language:
English
URL:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kxp/detail.action?docID=413400
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