The Age of Noise in Britain: Hearing Modernity (Studies in Sensory History)

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.| Cover Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Modernity as Crisis: Noise and "Nerves" 2. Re-Enchanting Modernity: Techniques of Magical Sound 3. Creating the Sonically Rational: Modern Interventions in Everyday Aurality 4. National Acoustics: Total Listening in the Second World War Conclusion Notes Index |"In this intriguing study, James Mansell engages with interactions between noise, modernity, and the construction of the self in interwar Britain. . . . It is an exemplary piece of work." — Technology and Culture "James Mansell's remarkably clear, wonderfully detailed, even occasionally droll examination of the sensing self in industrial modernity makes a substantial, important contribution to historical sound studies and British studies."—John M. Picker, author of Victorian Soundscapes "In sum, Mansell's work successfully unlocks the sensory world of the past and demonstrates how one might decode the meanings of sound for those who experienced it."— Fides et Historia |James G. Mansell is an assistant professor of cultural studies at the University of Nottingham 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.;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. Sound transformed British life in the 'age of noise' between 1914 and 1945. The sonic maelstrom of mechanised society bred anger and anxiety and even led observers to forecast the end of civilisation. The noise was, as James G. Mansell shows, modernity itself, expressed in aural form, with immense implications for the construction of the self