Why read The Soundscape of Modernity?

Book cover of The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933

Book description

In this history of aural culture in early-twentieth-century America, Emily Thompson charts dramatic transformations in what people heard and how they listened. What they heard was a new kind of sound that was the product of modern technology. They listened as newly critical consumers of aural commodities. By examining the…

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Why read it?

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

Ai Hisano

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What is noise? Is it about loud music? Train sounds? Well, what makes certain sounds noise depends on the context. In the late-nineteenth-century United States, for example, the sound of the locomotive, which may sound like noise to many people, was heard as a symbol of modernity and technological advancement. Thompson’s book explores such change in the nature of sound and the culture of listening with the rise of new technology in the United States during the first few decades of the twentieth century, from the street and the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society Building to Radio City in New York.

From Ai's list on The best books to offer an entirely new understanding of your sensory experience.