1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910162736703321

Autore

Mansell James G.

Titolo

The Age of Noise in Britain : Hearing Modernity / / James G. Mansell

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Urbana, Chicaggo, Springfield, [Illinois] : , : University of Illinois Press, , 2017

©2017

ISBN

9780252099113

0252099117

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (195 pages)

Collana

Studies in sensory history

Disciplina

363.74094

Soggetti

Noise - Health aspects - Great Britain - History

Noise control - Great Britain - History

City noise - Great Britain - History

Industrial noise - Great Britain - History

Noise - Great Britain - Social aspects - History

Electronic books.

Great Britain Civilization

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

Early twentieth-century Britons thought that they were living in the 'age of noise,' sensing the historical changes going on around them as a series of disturbing shifts in the sonic atmosphere. From motorcar engines and wireless loudspeakers to the terrifying interruptions of mechanized warfare, the feeling of living in topsy-turvy times arrived via the ear. Yet historians have not listened to the sounds of early twentieth-century Britain nor unravelled what it meant to live in an 'age of noise'. This work turns a critical ear to the 'ways of hearing' operating in Britain between 1914 and 1945 and argues that attempts to shape encounters with everyday sound were expressive of hopes and



fears for modernity.