City of Second Sight: Nineteenth-Century Boston and the Making of American Visual Culture

ISBN-10: 1469638746
ISBN-13: 9781469638744
Category: History
Pages: 292
Language: English
Published: 2018-03-16
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Author: Justin T. Clark

Description

In the decades before the U.S. Civil War, the city of Boston evolved from a dilapidated, haphazardly planned, and architecturally stagnant provincial town into a booming and visually impressive metropolis. In an effort to remake Boston into the "Athens of America," neighborhoods were leveled, streets straightened, and an ambitious set of architectural ordinances enacted. However, even as residents reveled in a vibrant new landscape of landmark buildings, art galleries, parks, and bustling streets, the social and sensory upheaval of city life also gave rise to a widespread fascination with the unseen. Focusing his analysis between 1820 and 1860, Justin T. Clark traces how the effort to impose moral and social order on the city also inspired many—from Transcendentalists to clairvoyants and amateur artists—to seek out more ethereal visions of the infinite and ideal beyond the gilded paintings and glimmering storefronts. By elucidating the reciprocal influence of two of the most important developments in nineteenth-century American culture—the spectacular city and visionary culture—Clark demonstrates how the nineteenth-century city is not only the birthplace of modern spectacle but also a battleground for the freedom and autonomy of the spectator.

Get the book

Similar books

Second Sight: An Editor's Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults
By Cheryl B. Klein
Try a little SECOND SIGHT.In this collection of talks, a professional editor offers insights from the other side of the publishing desk on a wide range of writerly topics:* Terrific first lines and how they got that way* What makes a strong ...
Second Sight
By Aoife Clifford
When Eliza Carmody returns to her small hometown after a destructive wildfire, she witnesses a crime that draws her back into the mysteries of a childhood she thought she’d left behind for good.
Second Sight
By Gary L. Blackwood
Rich in Dickensian flavor and packed with fascinating historical details, this compelling alternate-history novel by the author of "The Year of the Hangman" takes readers into the plot to assassinate President Lincoln.
Second Sight
By Sepharial
Reproduction of the original: Second Sight by Sepharial
The Finest Building in America: The New York Crystal Palace, 1853-1858
By Edwin G. Burrows
Unlike Europeans, Americans don't have sculpture, paintings, or antiquities to educate them, and only a comparative few enjoy the wealth and leisure necessary to travel abroad and experience art firsthand. This is not to say that the ...
Second Sight
By J. F. Althouse
Jordan Wright, former Navy Seal turned architect, has made the discovery of a lifetime.
Consuming Identities: Visual Culture in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco
By Amy DeFalco Lippert
... 36 Habenicht, George 370 Hamilton, Charles F. 144, 166, 180n140, 209 Hamilton & Company (studio) 166 Hamilton & Kellogg (studio) 144 Harrison, Eli 276 Harvard, Charles 19 Hauser, Miska 284,330,336 Hawai'i, Kingdom of 10, 64, 108, ...
Love at Second Sight: Playing the Midlife Dating Game
By Nancy W. Collins, Mason Grigsby
Featuring personal anecdotes from four hundred single people who achieved success in the midlife dating game, a valuable resource provides an abundance of practical advice, guidance, and tips for finding that special someone. Reprint.
The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley: The spellbinding BBC Between the Covers book club pick
By Sean Lusk
A BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick and Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month, for fans of PANDORA, THE ESSEX SERPENT and THE NIGHT CIRCUS. 'One of the best books I've read this year.
Second Sight
By George Szanto
Second Sight is both a compelling mystery and a powerful work of literary fiction that exposes the realms of Mexican wealth and politics.