The Age of Noise in Britain: Hearing Modernity

The Age of Noise in Britain: Hearing Modernity (University of Illinois Press, 2017) by James G. Mansell brings forward the opportunity to hear modernity and examine how sound shaped the selves of Britons in an age of economic, social and political upheaval. Industrial and technological sounds created anxiety, especially for the middle classes; sound experts were engaged by the state to manage, manipulate, and contain sounds; individuals negotiated as best as they could their distance to what became an increasingly noisy world. Mansell argues that these acts of hearing - not always listening - elicited new ways if thinking about being modern. James G. Mansell is Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies in the Department of Culture, Film and Media at the University of Nottingham. James's research and teaching expertise are in cultural history, sensory studies, and sound studies. His research has focused on the cultural history of sound and hearing, sound media, and on histories of sonic modernity and modernism.New Books in Sound Studies is a collaboration between the Centre for Media Data and Society at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary and the New Books Network.