Public Speaking In The City

Dazzled, perhaps, by the seductive charms of new communication technology and equating modernity exclusively with the new, most accounts of the modern city around 1900 remain silent on the role that public speaking played in shaping and framing the urban experience. Janet Stewart sets out to break this scholarly silence, using primary material, and case studies of acclaimed speakers such as Karl Kraus, Adolf Loos and Georg Simmel, to reveal connections between location, speech and the metropolis in two archetypal modern cities: Berlin and Vienna.

Public Speaking in the City provides a compelling analysis of debates in and about the modern city, asking: Who was speaking and what were they talking about?; What form did public speaking take and where did it take place? This imaginative study, drawing upon architecture, history, literary studies, new media and sociology, concludes by reflecting on public speaking in the construction of the virtual city.

Review:

'This book breaks new ground in the exploration of the modern metropolis.

For far too long we have been preoccupied with the visual modes of communication in urban settings. This excellently researched, well articulated and stimulating study examines the transformation of communication in this period. Specifically, Stewart chooses to focus upon the neglected study of the spoken word, public speaking and dialogue with urban publics in diverse urban spatial contexts.

In a richly textured series of chapters, she explores the varied settings for dialogues on the city by architects, sites such as exhibitions, the street, the coffee house and the salon.' - David Frisby, Professor in Sociology and Cities Programme, London School of Economics, UK