Fire & Civilization

According to many mythological traditions, people became truly human by learning to domesticate fire and cook food.

Other great societal transformations – the birth of agriculture and the industrial revolution – represent huge leaps forward in our relations with fire. This book examines Homer and the Hebrew Bible, the Vestal Virgins and pioneering Roman fire brigades, the role of Hell-fire in Christianity’s “civilizing campaign” and developments from the age of steam to “fire-powered” cars and nuclear fusion. Even today, bush and forest fires caused by short-sighted farming policies or sheer high spirits contribute to the disastrous international wood shortage. This work of wide-ranging scholarship both illuminates such current concerns, and makes readers look again at the whole course of human history.

Johan Goudsblom is the author of Dutch Society, Sociology in the Balance, Nihilism and Culture, and Human History and Social Process.