Why read The Audible Past?

Book cover of The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction

Book description

The Audible Past explores the cultural origins of sound reproduction. It describes a distinctive sound culture that gave birth to the sound recording and the transmission devices so ubiquitous in modern life. With an ear for the unexpected, scholar and musician Jonathan Sterne uses the technological and cultural precursors of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Audible Past as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alejandra Bronfman

Author

Sterne explores the cultural history of how and why Americans developed technologies that reproduced and transmitted sound. It is a surprising story that takes us through the Civil War and ideas about death, deaf children and their teachers, the discipline of medicine, and the practice of folklore. It turns out that cultural shifts encouraged the preservation of sound, and those machines we developed in turn changed the ways we listen.

From Alejandra's list on sound and why you should care about it.