or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
33 used & new from $13.50
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a $2.60 Amazon.com Gift Card
 
   
Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century
 
 
Share your own customer images
Look inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century (Paperback)

~ Wolfgang Schivelbusch (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
List Price: $21.95
Price: $18.97 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $2.98 (14%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, March 23? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
17 new from $16.89 16 used from $13.50

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover --   $226.25 $6.54
Paperback $18.97   $16.89 $13.50

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space by Wolfgang Schivelbusch

Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century + The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space
Price For Both: $39.87

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space

The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space

by Wolfgang Schivelbusch
3.4 out of 5 stars (5)  $20.90
Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940

Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940

by David E. Nye
4.0 out of 5 stars (4)  $26.96
France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Brief Documentary History (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

by Michael Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  $12.33
The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918: With a New Preface

The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918: With a New Preface

by Stephen Kern
4.3 out of 5 stars (6)  $21.79
The Communist Manifesto: With Related Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

The Communist Manifesto: With Related Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

by Friedrich Engels
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $11.65
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The story of the development of artificial light in the 19th century is not only a history of its technology but a revelation of how that technology helped forge modern consciousness. The range of subjects includes the political symbolism of streetlamps, the rise of nightlife and the shop window, and the importance of the salon in the bourgeois culture. Very Highly Recommended.

Review

Entertaining... provides ground for much speculation -- about the deregulation of utilities, the role of lighting in crime control, the growing attraction of self-sufficient rural life and the social functions of the theater. That is no mean feat for 227 pages. -- New York Times Book Review
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 227 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press (December 20, 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0520203542
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520203549
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #238,405 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #39 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Future of Computing

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Wolfgang Schivelbusch
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Wolfgang Schivelbusch Page
Look Inside This Book
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover
Citations (learn more)
37 books cite this book:
See all 37 books citing this book

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century
82% buy the item featured on this page:
Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
$18.97
The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space
10% buy
The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space 3.4 out of 5 stars (5)
$20.90
The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918: With a New Preface
3% buy
The Culture of Time and Space, 1880-1918: With a New Preface 4.3 out of 5 stars (6)
$21.79
Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939
3% buy
Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939 4.6 out of 5 stars (7)
$10.20
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(4)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?
See all 13 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Disenchanted Night, June 2, 2008
By Sam Adams (Minnesota. USA) - See all my reviews
The book has five main sections: The Lamp; The Street; Night Life; The Drawing Room; The Stage. As the publisher's blurb says: "[The author] tells the story of the development of artificial light in the nineteenth century. Not simply a history of a technology, [this book] reveals the ways that the technology of artificial illumination helped forge the modern consciousness."

The first main section, The Lamp, discusses the development of the gas lamp and the consequent municipal control over home gas lighting, as well as the new dangers of explosion and gas poisoning. It proceeds to the development of electric lighting and tells how "Edison developed the central electricity station on the model of the gas-works just as seventy years earlier Winsor had conceived a central gas supply along the lines of the water supply." (64)

The second main section, The Street, is initially more about the sociological effects of the increasing illumination of the urban night, and the relation of street lighting to political power. With the advent of electric street lights, the author focuses again on the technological side, for example, the hopes to use arc lighting as an artificial sun to illuminate an entire city from a single lamp.

The third main section, Night Life, is a brief look at the "lighting of festivity" in contrast to the previous section, which concerned the "lighting of order". (137) Night life "derives its own special atmosphere from the light that falls onto the pavements and streets from shops,... cafes and restaurants.... It is advertising light - commercialized festive illumination - in contrast to street light, the lighting of a police order. Commercial light is to police light what bourgeois society is to the state." (142)

The next main section, The Drawing Room, tells us this room, also called the parlor or living room, remained unlit by electric light in homes using electric light in other rooms. Gas light was diffused through lamp shades, just as sunlight was diffused through muslin window curtains. Later, when electric light entered the drawing room, lamp shades became darker or multi-colored in the manner, for example, of Tiffany, and window curtains became heavier, more opaque, to more severely filter sunlight, and at night to block the entrance of bright lighting from the street.

The final main section, The Stage, tells us there were difficulties getting stage lighting to appear natural. The closer foot light lit brighter than the more distant side lights, giving, as one reviewer wrote, the appearance of light "coming straight from Hell." Being lit from below, the actors looked unnatural, their faces "grotesque masks". Yet it was only within the light of the foot lights that subtle facial expressions could be discerned. Only within this band of light at the front of the stage were the actors most clearly seen. The introduction of electric light removed these difficulties, but this new brighter lighting washed away the illusions previously created by scenery designed to work under dimmer and less pervasive illumination. Color, too, was perceived differently under electric light.


Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars illuminating reading, October 18, 2002
By curt dilger (phila usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This rather obscure book shouldn't be; a very meticulous and perceptive history of an important subject, the history of artificial light, Schivelbusch provides excellent research and, significantly, adds unexpected observations along the way, such as the political dimension of artificial light, light as an expression of statist control. Highly recommended.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanted Lighting, April 29, 2008
By Moheroy (San Francisco, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
An amazing book, "Disenchanted Night" begins with the physical constraints, the actual production of light and then takes it through the nature of public order, the idea of shpping and the creation of mass nightlife and off into the theater. Once one has read this book, the nineteenth century will never seem the same and the world before, lit only by fire, is revealed much more strongly.

What is absolutely fascinating in which ideas of public order, commerce, art and even interior decorating are shown to be as much technical artifacts as ideological categories. In a way the sections on Street Lighting and Shops are almost a technological addendum to Bakhtin.

In short: Read this book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars From fire light to near sunlight day and night
Those books that you missed or wished you had read, good books in great shape hardback or paperback. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Elmer P. Jennings

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
An interesting treatment that focuses on the social aspects of technology, and a useful reminder of way of life that seems long past but is chronologically recent.
Published on May 4, 1999

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

So You'd Like to...

Create a guide

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:


























i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.