The age of noise in Britain : hearing modernity

Responsibility
James G. Mansell.
Publication
Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2016.
Physical description
1 online resource
Series
Studies in sensory history.

Online

Available online

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Description

Creators/Contributors

Author/Creator
Mansell, James G., author.

Contents/Summary

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
  • Modernity as crisis: noise and nerves
  • Re-enchanting modernity: techniques of magical sound
  • Creating the sonically rational: modern interventions in everyday aurality
  • National acoustics: total listening in the Second World War.
Summary
Sound transformed British life in the "age of noise" between 1914 and 1945. The sonic maelstrom of mechanized society bred anger and anxiety and even led observers to forecast the end of civilization. The noise was, as James G. Mansell shows, modernity itself, expressed in aural form, with immense implications for the construction of the self. Tracing the ideas, feelings, and representations prompted by life in early twentieth century Britain, Mansell examines how and why sound shaped the self. He works at the crux of cultural and intellectual history, analyzing the meanings that were attached to different types of sound, who created these typologies and why, and how these meanings connected to debates about modernity. From traffic noise to air raids, everyday sounds elicited new ways of thinking about being modern. Each individual negotiated his or her own subjective meanings through hopes or fears for sound. As Mansell considers the different ways Britons heard their world, he reveals why we must take sound into account in our studies of cultural and social history.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Bibliographic information

Publication date
2016
Series
Studies in sensory history
ISBN
9780252099113 (ebook)
0252099117
9780252040672 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0252040678
9780252082184
0252082184
Librarian view | Catkey: 13046394