Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
n this absorbing study of the role of fire in 19th-century Russia, Frierson offers insights on a wide variety of other aspects of life of the period: agricultural practices; the relationship between peasants, for whom fire was the principal source of energy, and the educated urban elite who wanted to control both the energy source and the peasants; arson as a weapon and as a tool of social protest; early fire-fighting organizations as examples of interclass cooperation.