How Early America Sounded - Softcover

Rath, Richard C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801472725 ISBN 13: 9780801472725

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2005

Synopsis

"My hope is that by attending to sound I have been able to open up parts of these worlds, not to get a glimpse of them but to listen in. These were worlds much more alive with sound than our own, worlds not yet disenchanted, worlds perhaps even chanted into being."―from the Introduction

In early America, every sound had a living, willful force at its source. Sometimes these forces were not human or even visible. In this fascinating and highly original work of cultural history, Richard Cullen Rath recreates in rich detail a world remote from our own, one in which sounds were charged with meaning and power.

From thunder and roaring waterfalls to bells and drums, natural and human-made sounds other than language were central to the lives of the inhabitants of colonial America. Rath considers the multiple soundscapes shaped by European Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans from 1600 to 1770, and particularly the methods that people used to interpret and express their beliefs about sound. In the process he shows how sound shaped identities, bonded communities, and underscored―or undermined―the power of authorities.

This book's stunning evidence of the importance of sound in early America―even among the highly literate New England Puritans―reminds us of a time before a world dominated by the visual, a young country where hearing was a more crucial part of living.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"As it moves from natural sounds to sounding boards to fiddles and finally to the rants of early Quakers and acoustics of meeting houses, Richard Cullen Rath’s book grows in persuasiveness and argumentative force. How Early America Sounded is a valiant text which stands alone in the diverse fields that it touches."—Robert Blair St. George, University of Pennsylvania

"Richard Cullen Rath’s study of early American soundways is delightfully original, genuinely new, and always innovative. This is an exciting book of exceptional scholarly merit."—Mark M. Smith, author of Listening to Nineteenth-Century America

"What did the world of the early American colonists sound like? The native peoples and colonists alike were very much tuned in to their auditory world. Richard Cullen Rath’s How Early America Sounded is a fascinating account of what might be called aural history. In our postmodern ‘plugged-in’ world, we archive sounds as photographs and video capture pictorial history, but as Rath points out, something has been lost, too. Think of this book as a going back to Walden Pond, but with one’s ears wide open."—Ron Hoy, Cornell University

About the Author

Richard Cullen Rath is Associate Professor of History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0801472725
• ISBN 13: 9780801472725
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240