From Publishers Weekly
In a pioneering study of America's culture of listening, University of Pennsylvania professor of the history and sociology of science Emily Thompson depicts a culture busily rationalizing, quantifying and taming sound in The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America 1900 1933. Beginning with the extraordinary (and little known) career of architectural engineer Wallace Sabine, from his felt-covered acoustical correction of the Rhode Island House of Representatives to his role in the influential design of Boston's Symphony Hall, Thompson analyzes the checkered (and ultimately futile) history of noise abatement and the implications of the introduction of electronics. Her account culminates in the design and construction of Rockefeller Center, and is powered throughout by the utopianism of the scientists, architects and engineers she depicts.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe:
Gebundene Ausgabe
.
Pressestimmen
"A historical tour de force... an absorbing book, as accessible in its technical content as it is provocative in its cultural interpretations." - Daniel J. Kevles, The New York Review of Books; "A path-breaking account of the technology, architecture and culture of acoustics in the early 20th century." - Leon Botstein, Los Angeles Times Book Review
