A Sensory History Manifesto

by Mark M. Smith

A Sensory History Manifesto is a brief and timely meditation on the state of the field. It invites historians who are unfamiliar with sensory history to adopt some of its insights and practices, and it urges current practitioners to think in new ways about writing histories of the senses. Starting from the premise that the sensorium is a historical formation, Mark M. Smith traces the origins of historical work on the senses long before the emergence of the field now called “sensory history,” interrogating, exploring, and in some cases recovering pioneering work on the topic. Smith argues that we are at an important moment in the writing of the history of the senses, and he explains the potential that this field holds for the study of history generally. In addition to highlighting the strengths of current work in sensory history, Smith also identifies some of its shortcomings. If sensory history provides historians of all persuasions, times, and places a useful and incisive way to write about the past, it also challenges current practitioners to think more carefully about the historicity of the senses and the desirability―even the urgency―of engaged and sustained debate among themselves. In this way, A Sensory History Manifesto invites scholars to think about how their field needs to evolve if the real interpretive dividends of sensory history are to be realized. Concise and convincing, A Sensory History Manifesto is a must-read for historians of all specializations.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

Published July 8, 2021

Reviews

[George Fowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ This is kind of a long-winded reading list with what is actually quite a sparse number of works referenced. Its a decent overview and I got a good amount of notes from it, but it is also very self important and heavily favours Smiths own area in (American) sound studies with really quite little discussion on the studies of the other senses in other contexts. Which at least works out for me as a sound theorist. It's not a bad book, just probably better off interwoven into a larger work tackling the history behind Sensory Studies.

[Grack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and pretty interesting but not always super entertained by spaghetti at the wall/overview/state-of-the-field texts like this (even though they are obviously important when learning about a new-to-me branch of history). Liked the bit about the tactility of Abraham Lincoln (both in life and in monuments) best.

[Romy Voeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Praktisch/ werkbaar boek over de ontwikkeling van de zintuiglijke geschiedenis en het onderzoek daarna. Goed overzicht en helder omschreven. Aanrader om erop na te slaan als je onderzoek doet naar een vorm van zintuiglijke geschiedenis.