Five Suns : A Fire History of Mexico

Pyne, Stephen J.

University of Arizona Press（2024/05発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 432 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780816553396
• DDC分類 577.240972

Full Description

A climate defined by wet and dry seasons, a mostly mountainous terrain, a biota prone to disturbances, a human geography characterized by a diversity of peoples all of whom rely on burning in one form or another: Mexico has ideal circumstances for fire, and those fires provide a unique perspective on its complex history.

Narrating Mexico's evolution of fire through five eras, historian Stephen J. Pyne describes the pre-human, pre-Hispanic, colonial, industrializing (1880-1980), and contemporary (1980-2015) fire biography of this diverse and dynamic country. Creatively deploying the Aztec New Fire Ceremony and the "five suns" that it birthed, Pyne addresses the question, "Why does fire appear in Mexico the way it does?" Five Suns tells the saga through a pyric prism.
Mexico has become one of the top ten "firepowers" in the world today through its fire suppression capabilities, fire research, and industrial combustion, but also by those continuing customary practices that have become increasingly significant to a world that suffers too much combustion and too little fire.

Five Suns completes a North American fire-history trilogy written by Pyne over the past 40 years, complementing his histories of Canada and the United States.

Contents

Table of contents
Prologue. New Fire
First Sun: Fire and Earth
Second Sun: Fire and Water
Third Sun: Fire and Sword
Fourth Sun: Fire and Iron
Fifth Sun: Fire and Air
Epilogue. Between Three Fires
Author's Note
Notes