Race and Landscape in the United States

This book on race and landscape in the United States begins with a simple image. ¹ Figure 1.1 presents a portion of a 1903 fire insurance map. ² Fire insurance maps became popular with insurance underwriters in the nineteenth century as a way to write policies without having to visit a site—they record building sizes, construction materials, proximity to water lines and fire hydrants, potentially flammable and combustible materials, and so on. They also carry a wealth of information that is useful beyond fire insurance underwriting—information that is factual even as it might shed light on American social and cultural attitudes extending well beyond a concern for fire in urban settings. This particular map depicts a small portion of the small village of Midway, in central Kentucky. It more specifically shows my house and yard as central, several other adjoining properties, my garage, and an ice house (ICE HO.) that was torn down long ago to make way for a new driveway. I start with my own house for two reasons. The first reason is prosaic, to make the point that this book intends to get the reader thinking about race and the cultural landscape in everyday places, such as one's own backyard. The second reason follows from the first but makes a somewhat broader claim that it is always possible to think about race and the American cultural landscape, even in one's own backyard.