Explores the cultural origins of sound reproduction. This book describes a distinctive sound culture that gave birth to the sound recording and transmission devices so ubiquitous in modern life. It is of interest to those in cultural studies, media and communication studies, musicology, and the history of technology.

The Audible Past" tracks the connections between the history of sound and the defining features of modernity: from developments in medicine, physics, and philosophy to the tumultuous shifts of industrial capitalism, colonialism, urbanization, modern technology, and the rise of a new middle class. A provocative history of sound, "The Audible Past" challenges theoretical commonplaces such as the philosophical privilege of the speaking subject, the visual bias in theories of modernity, and static descriptions of nature. It will interest those in cultural studies, media and communication studies, the new musicology, and the history of technology.

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations for Archival Materials Cited
Acknowledgements
Hello
Machines to Hear for Them
Techniques of Listening
Audile Technique and Media
Plastic Aurality: Technologies Into Media
The Social Genesis of Sound Fidelity
A Resonant Tomb
Conclusion: Audible Futures
Notes
Bibliography