The Sensational Past: How the Enlightenment Changed the Way We Use Our Senses

Nonfiction, History, Modern, 18th Century, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Mind & Body
Cover of the book The Sensational Past: How the Enlightenment Changed the Way We Use Our Senses by Carolyn Purnell, W. W. Norton & Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Carolyn Purnell ISBN: 9780393249361
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: February 7, 2017
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Carolyn Purnell
ISBN: 9780393249361
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: February 7, 2017
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

Sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch—as they were celebrated during the Enlightenment and as they are perceived today.

Blindfolding children from birth? Playing a piano made of live cats? Using tobacco to cure drowning? Wearing “flea”-colored clothes? These actions may seem odd to us, but in the eighteenth century, they made perfect sense.

As often as we use our senses, we rarely stop to think about their place in history. But perception is not dependent on the body alone. Carolyn Purnell persuasively shows that, while our bodies may not change dramatically, the way we think about the senses and put them to use has been rather different over the ages. Journeying through the past three hundred years, Purnell explores how people used their senses in ways that might shock us now. And perhaps more surprisingly, she shows how many of our own ways of life are a legacy of this earlier time.

The Sensational Past focuses on the ways in which small, peculiar, and seemingly unimportant facts open up new ways of thinking about the past. You will explore the sensory worlds of the Enlightenment, learning how people in the past used their senses, understood their bodies, and experienced the rapidly shifting world around them.

In this smart and witty work, Purnell reminds us of the value of daily life and the power of the smallest aspects of existence using culinary history, fashion, medicine, music, and many other aspects of Enlightenment life.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch—as they were celebrated during the Enlightenment and as they are perceived today.

Blindfolding children from birth? Playing a piano made of live cats? Using tobacco to cure drowning? Wearing “flea”-colored clothes? These actions may seem odd to us, but in the eighteenth century, they made perfect sense.

As often as we use our senses, we rarely stop to think about their place in history. But perception is not dependent on the body alone. Carolyn Purnell persuasively shows that, while our bodies may not change dramatically, the way we think about the senses and put them to use has been rather different over the ages. Journeying through the past three hundred years, Purnell explores how people used their senses in ways that might shock us now. And perhaps more surprisingly, she shows how many of our own ways of life are a legacy of this earlier time.

The Sensational Past focuses on the ways in which small, peculiar, and seemingly unimportant facts open up new ways of thinking about the past. You will explore the sensory worlds of the Enlightenment, learning how people in the past used their senses, understood their bodies, and experienced the rapidly shifting world around them.

In this smart and witty work, Purnell reminds us of the value of daily life and the power of the smallest aspects of existence using culinary history, fashion, medicine, music, and many other aspects of Enlightenment life.

More books from W. W. Norton & Company

Cover of the book Riches for the Poor: The Clemente Course in the Humanities by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Pascali's Island by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Authority by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book RAF: The Birth of the World's First Air Force by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Arabian Jazz: A Novel by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Visual Note-Taking for Educators: A Teacher's Guide to Student Creativity by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Mindful Anger: A Pathway to Emotional Freedom by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book World in the Balance: The Historic Quest for an Absolute System of Measurement by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Odd Mercy: Poems by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Seven Lies: A Novel by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited: Anti-Globalization in the Era of Trump by Carolyn Purnell
Cover of the book No Apparent Distress: A Doctor's Coming of Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine by Carolyn Purnell
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy