Overview

Throughout the twentieth century, cities such as Houston, Galveston, New Orleans, and Mobile grappled with the safety hazards created by oil and gas industries as well as the role municipal governments should play in protecting the public from these threats. James B. McSwain's Petroleum and Public Safety reveals how officials in these cities created standards based on technical, scientific, and engineering knowledge to devise politically workable ordinances related to the storage and handling of fuel. Each of the cities studied in this volume struggled through protracted debates regarding the regulation of crude petroleum and fuel oil, sparked by the famous Spindletop strike of 1901 and the regional oil boom in the decades that followed. Municipal governments sought to ensure the safety of their citizens while still reaping lucrative economic benefits from local petroleum industry activities. Drawing on historical antecedents such as fire-protection engineering, the cities of the Gulf South came to adopt voluntary, consensual fire codes issued by insurance associations and standards organisations such as the National Board of Fire Underwriters, the National Fire Protection Association, and the Southern Standard Building Code Conference. The culmination of such efforts was the creation of the International Fire Code, an overarching fire-protection guide that is widely used in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. In devising ordinances, Gulf South officials pursued the politics of risk management, as they hammered out strategies to eliminate or mitigate the dangers associated with petroleum industries and to reduce the possible consequences of catastrophic oil explosions and fires. Using an array of original sources, including newspapers, municipal records, fire-insurance documents, and risk-management literature, McSwain demonstrates that Gulf South cities played a vital role in twentieth-century modernization.

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9780807169124

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Reviews

Petroleum is not safe, but its hazards can be identified and its risks managed. In this finely detailed study, James B. McSwain expertly explores the intricate policies of four Gulf South cities--Mobile, Houston, New Orleans, and Galveston--and the systematic efforts of engineers, insurers, oilmen, and politicians to regulate the dangers of storing, transporting, and using petroleum at the beginning of twentieth century.--Paul Lucier, author of Scientists and Swindlers: Consulting on Coal and Oil in America, 1820-1890 Petroleum and Public Safety elegantly explores the intensely local politics of oil as it transformed the energy infrastructure of early twentieth-century American cities. Author James B. McSwain draws finely grained portraits of southern municipalities where citizens, oil consumers, oil producers, and insurance interests balanced risk versus opportunity presented by this new energy source and struggled over how it should be regulated. By looking at where and how oil was used, not only where it was produced and sold, McSwain offers an innovative and refreshing perspective on petroleum's impact on American life.--Roger Horowitz, author of Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation

Petroleum and Public Safety elegantly explores the intensely local politics of oil as it transformed the energy infrastructure of early twentieth-century American cities. Author James B. McSwain draws finely grained portraits of southern municipalities where citizens, oil consumers, oil producers, and insurance interests balanced risk versus opportunity presented by this new energy source and struggled over how it should be regulated. By looking at where and how oil was used, not only where it was produced and sold, McSwain offers an innovative and refreshing perspective on petroleum's impact on American life.--Roger Horowitz, author of Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste, Technology, Transformation Petroleum is not safe, but its hazards can be identified and its risks managed. In this finely detailed study, James B. McSwain expertly explores the intricate policies of four Gulf South cities--Mobile, Houston, New Orleans, and Galveston--and the systematic efforts of engineers, insurers, oilmen, and politicians to regulate the dangers of storing, transporting, and using petroleum at the beginning of twentieth century.--Paul Lucier, author of Scientists and Swindlers: Consulting on Coal and Oil in America, 1820-1890

Author Information

James B. McSwain is professor of history at Tuskegee University.

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