Cause for Alarm

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Focusing on the urban volunteer fire departments of the nineteenth century, the book explores their significant yet overlooked role in city life. Amy Greenberg analyzes the fire companies in Baltimore, St. Louis, and San Francisco, revealing their mixed social composition of merchants, working men, and immigrants. Rather than being strictly working class, these groups forged a shared masculine identity through firefighting, which fostered community, competition, and camaraderie amidst the challenges of urban life.