Silence : a social history of one of the least understood elements of our lives /

Brox, Jane, 1956-

Silence : a social history of one of the least understood elements of our lives / Jane Brox. - 310 pages ; 22 cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, 1829: Experiment in Silence -- Man of Sorrows -- Benjamin Rush's Vision -- Good by Discipline -- John Haviland's Star of Solitudes -- Part II. The Monastic World: A History of Silence -- In Proportion -- Speech and Silence -- Thomas Merton: Silence and the World -- Measures of Time -- The Voices of the Pages -- The Great Silence -- Part III. Philadelphia: Darkening the Dark -- Night in Stone -- "I get up and hammer my leather." -- Punishment Within Punishment -- "So that it may uplift ..." -- Time Again -- Part IV. The Silence of Women -- Silencing Silence -- "Or perhaps women ..." -- Monastic Women: More Shadow Than Light -- Part V. The Ends of Silence -- Thomas Merton: Questioning Silence -- The Monastic World: What Remains -- The Prison Cell in Our Time -- Intervals of Silence -- Coda -- In Ruins.

Offers a history of silence as a powerful shaper of the human mind, specifically in Eastern State Penitentiary and the monastic world of Medieval Europe.

9780544702486 0544702484

2018017520


Silence--History.
Silence--Social aspects.
Monasticism and religious orders--History.


Pennsylvania--Prisons--History.
Europe--History--476-1492.

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