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

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 310 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780544702486
  • 0544702484
Subject(s):
Contents:
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.
Summary: 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.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 302.1 B885 Available 33111009340023
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the author of the "dazzling epic"* Brilliant, a compelling history of silence as a powerful shaper of the human mind--in prisons, in places of contemplation, and in our own lives



Through her evocative intertwined histories of the penitentiary and the monastery, Jane Brox illuminates the many ways silence is far more complex than any absolute; how it has influenced ideas of the self, soul, and society. Brox traces its place as a transformative power in the monastic world from Medieval Europe to the very public life of twentieth century monk Thomas Merton, whose love for silence deepened even as he faced his obligation to speak out against war. This fascinating history of ideas also explores the influence the monastic cell had on one of society's darkest experiments in silence: Eastern State Penitentiary. Conceived of by one of the Founding Fathers and built on the outskirts of Philadelphia, the penitentiary's early promulgators imagined redemption in imposed isolation, but they badly misapprehended silence's dangers.



Finally, Brox's rich exploration of silence's complex and competing meanings leads us to imagine how we might navigate our own relationship with silence today, for the transformation it has always promised, in our own lives.



*Time

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.

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