Love them or hate them, there are few things that feel as quintessentially American as fireworks, the favorite way to celebrate during every unhinged national birthday party. For part one of this two-part semiquincentennial series on their history in America, I demonstrate to Sarah Marshall of You’re Wrong About the ridiculousness of modern consumer fireworks, and then we look at the rumored use of these explosives that came over from England during colonization, our early raucous national traditions, the theatrical “pyrodramas” of the 1800s, and the dramatic Victorian pushback against what they called the "noise devil," leading to the widespread bans we know today.
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Producer and Editor: Miranda Zickler
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