Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century - Softcover

Schivelbusch, Wolfgang

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520203542 ISBN 13: 9780520203549

Publisher: University of California Press, 1995

Synopsis

Wolfgang Schivelbusch tells the story of the development of artificial light in the nineteenth century. Not simply a history of a technology, Disenchanted Night revelas the ways that the technology of artificial illumination helped forge modern consciousness. In his strikingly illustrated and lively narrative, Schivelbusch discusses a range of subject including the political symbolism of streetlamps, the rise of nightlife and the shopwindow, and the importance of the salon in bourgeois culture.

About this title

About the Author

Wolfgang Schivelbusch is a freelance writer who works in Berlin and New York. His prize-winning work The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century is also available from University of California Press.

From the Back Cover

"Entertaining. . . . [Schivelbusch] provides ground for much speculation--about the deregulation of utilities, the role of lighting in crim control, the growing attraction of self-sufficient rural life and hte social function of the theater. That is no mean feat for 227 pages."--Brenda Maddox, New York Times Book Review "A readable, highly personal, often original, and deliberately provocative attempt to integrate the story of artificial lisght with the history of modern life."--Neil Harris, Science "A solid introduction to major technological transformations in 19th-century lighting and their social, psychological, and cultural contexts."--John Opie, Technology and Culture "A marvelous nugget of history and economics."--Newsday

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520203542
• ISBN 13: 9780520203549
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 238