How Early America Sounded.

How Early America Sounded. By Richard Cullen Rath. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003. Pp. xii, 227. Paper, $18.95, ISBN 0-80147272-5; cloth, $32.50, ISBN 0-8014-4126-9.)

While scholarly works frequently recite commentary from early European explorers on how different the particular environments in America were from anything in their previous experience, we learn much less of the aural impressions conveyed by initial encounters. Hence, this book intrigued me. Richard Cullen Rath suggests that the omission of sounds from our history can be attributed to a dulling of the appreciation for the significance of aural communication among the educated public in the western world who, since the print revolution of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, have become inured to communicating information through silent methods of reading and writing. As we learn from this important book, that mindset was not true of writers of the early modern centuries who referred to sounds that were novel to them as frequently as they did to the visions and smells they encountered.

Some (unfortunately all too little) of this book is based on a re-reading of encounter literature in an effort to elucidate the impressions that early experiences with America left upon the ears of Europeans. Rath then proceeds to discuss some sounds that were brought to America from the Old World. He looks at the sounds associated with the various modes of Christian worship fostered by Europeans who chose to make their homes in America. He also examines the sounds cultivated by African slaves--sounds that served to maintain cherished cultural links to the homes from which they had been torn and to establish a communication network to which masters would not have access. Then, in a further revisiting of encounter literature, the author treats the sounds (usually depicted as threatening and harsh) that Europeans heard emitted by Native Americans, especially those heard in times of celebration and war.

This summation is intended to convey the eclectic character of this book, which ultimately is a collection of essays rather than a coherent monograph. The strength of succeeding chapters is their wealth of insightful comments, which will ensure that in the future scholars will be more alert to the information that sources provide about the impact of sound on the lives of early Americans. To this extent the book should have a profound and enduring influence on how the history of early America is taught. However, a vexatious aspect of the book is that no sooner are ideas advanced than they are dropped, as the author moves forward to consider some fresh theme and different sources. Perhaps the author's reluctance to dwell for long on any particular question and on sources likely to provide answers to his questions is actually his recognition that only a multimedia technology would do justice to the subject he has addressed.

NICHOLAS CANNY

National University of Ireland, Galway