As the twentieth century roared on, transformative technologies—from trains, trams and automobiles to radios and loudspeakers—fundamentally changed the sounds of the Egyptian streets. The cacophony of everyday life grew louder, and the Egyptian press featured editorials calling for the regulation of not only mechanised and amplified sounds, but also the voices of street vendors, the music of wedding processions and even the traditional funerary wails.
Ziad Fahmy offers the first historical examination of the changing soundscapes of urban Egypt, highlighting the mundane sounds of street life while “”listening”” to the voices of ordinary people as they struggle with state authorities for ownership of the streets.
Street Sounds also reveals a political dimension of noise by demonstrating how the growing middle class used sound to distinguish themselves from the Egyptian masses. This book contextualises sound, layering historical analysis with a sensory dimension, bringing us closer to the Egyptian streets as lived and embodied by everyday people.
About the Author
Ziad Fahmy is an Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History at Cornell University.
About the Publisher
Founded in 1892, Stanford University Press (SUP) publishes 130 books a year across the humanities, social sciences, law and business, informing scholarly debate, generating global and cross-cultural discussion and bringing timely, peer-reviewed scholarship to the wider reading public. Numerous recent accolades include the Hayek Book Award and an NAACP Image Award nomination, while its authors and their books frequently appear in impactful media outlets and leading academic journals. At the leading edge of both print and digital dissemination of innovative research, with more than 3,000 books currently in print, SUP is a publisher of ideas that matter and books that endure.
