"Mansell has given us an exhilarating and highly original way of understanding early twentieth century Britain. He ranges confidently across a dazzlingly wide terrain--attitudes towards neurasthenia, the occult thinking of Theosophists, technocrats designing quieter homes, those aghast at the sonic assaults of the wartime Blitz--and shows how noise was more than a symbol of modern life or the bane of the highly-strung. It was regarded by a whole gamut of experts and pseudo-experts as an irritating, mysterious, troubling force dramatically reshaping the relationship between the individual and society. The Age of Noise in Britain allows us to eavesdrop on this loud and disputatious period--indeed, to question our understanding of modernity itself. It is unsettling in the very best of ways."
--David Hendy, author of Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening
--David Hendy, author of Noise: A Human History of Sound and Listening