London: Water and the Making of the Modern City

摘要

As people crowded into British cities in the nineteenth century, industrial and biological waste byproducts followed, and then epidemics. Britons died by the thousands in recurring plagues. Social reformers such as Sir Edwin Chadwick and physician John Snow pleaded for measures that could save lives and preserve the social fabric. The solution that prevailed was the novel idea that British towns must build public water supplies, replacing private companies. But the idea was not an obvious or inevitable one. Those who promoted new waterworks argued that they could use water to realize a new kind of British society-a productive social machine, a new moral community, and a modern civilization. They did not merely cite the dangers of epidemics or scarcity. Despite many debates and conflicts, this vision won out in town after town, from Birmingham to Liverpool to Edinburgh.