{"product_id":"the-soundscape-of-modernity-isbn-9780262701068","title":"The Soundscape of Modernity","description":"\u003cb\u003eA vibrant history of acoustical technology and aural culture in early-twentieth-century America.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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 technologies that produced this sound, as well as the culture that enthusiastically consumed it, Thompson recovers a lost dimension of the Machine Age and deepens our understanding of the experience of change that characterized the era.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReverberation equations, sound meters, microphones, and acoustical tiles were deployed in places as varied as Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's office skyscrapers, and the soundstages of Hollywood. The control provided by these technologies, however, was applied in ways that denied the particularity of place, and the diverse spaces of modern America began to sound alike as a universal new sound predominated. Although this sound—clear, direct, efficient, and nonreverberant—had little to say about the physical spaces in which it was produced, it speaks volumes about the culture that created it. By listening to it, Thompson constructs a compelling new account of the experience of modernity in America.\u003c\/p\u003e...an absorbing book, as accessible in its technical content as it is provocative in its cultural interpretations.—\u003cb\u003eDaniel J. Kevles\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e...enlivened by copious photographs and architectural illustrations—a valuable source.\u003c\/p\u003e—\u003cb\u003eTom Perchard\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Wire (UK)\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a marvelous book and a seminal primer on how and why technology modified our taste.\u003c\/p\u003e—\u003cb\u003eDerek Sugden\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Architectural Review\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThompson's narrative is elegantly written and wonderfully engaging.\u003c\/p\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLeon Botstein\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Soundscape of Modernity\u003c\/i\u003e describes the modern development of acoustics in wonderful and easily understood detail.\u003c\/p\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJohn Bishop\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe American Organist\u003c\/i\u003e—Emily Thompson is a Professor of History at Princeton University.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301447487717,"sku":"NP9780262701068","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262701068.jpg?v=1767741601","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-soundscape-of-modernity-isbn-9780262701068","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}