Electric Light by Sandy Isenstadt - ISBN: 9780262038171
Hardcover
How electric light created new spaces that transformed the built environment and the perception of modern architecture.

Electric Light

An Architectural History

  • Hardcover

    304 pages

  • Release Date

    25 September 2018

Summary

How electric light created new spaces that transformed the built environment and the perception of modern architecture.In this book, Sandy Isenstadt examines electric light as a form of architecture-as a new, uniquely modern kind of building material. Electric light was more than just a novel way of brightening a room or illuminating a streetscape; it brought with it new ways of perceiving and experiencing space itself. If modernity can be characterized by rapid, incessant change, and moderni…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780262038171
ISBN-10:026203817X
Author:Sandy Isenstadt
Publisher:MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:MIT Press
Format:Hardcover
Number of Pages:304
Release Date:25 September 2018
Weight:856g
Dimensions:229mm x 178mm x 22mm
Series:The MIT Press
Audience Age:18
What They're Saying

Critics Review

In varying the scope of his reflections—from the detail of the light switch to the suspended temporality of a city’s electrified streets—Isenstadt engages readers on a compelling journey at the intersection of society, culture, and technology. Rather than deploying aesthetic categories, Isenstadt focuses on new visual habits

The Architect’s Newspaper

Isenstadt’s book explores an understudied field, making valuable contributions and connections between studies of science, technology, and society (STS) as well as art and architectural history. The book is also written in a sophisticated yet accessible manner for readers who simply want to expand their horizon.

The Journal of Architectural Education

Isenstadt has created a work that is every bit as bright and kaleidoscopic as the Great White Way he describes with such relish. His prose is always provocative and punchy, whether he is describing the invention of the light switch or evoking Martin Heidegger, James Joyce, and Marcel Proust.

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

About The Author

Sandy Isenstadt

Sandy Isenstadt is a Professor in the Art History Department and Director of the Center for Material Culture Studies at the University of Delaware. He is the author of The Modern American House- Spaciousness and Middle-Class Identity.

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