Research Catalog

Title

A history of the wind / Alain Corbin ; translated by William A. Peniston.

Author

Corbin, Alain

Publication

Cambridge, UK ; Hoboken, NJ : Polity, [2023]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Peniston, William A., 1959-

Description

ix, 150 pages : illustrations, maps, facsimiles; 23 cm

Summary

"Everyone knows the wind's touch, its presence, its force. Sometimes it roars and howls, at other times we hear its wistful sighs and feel its soothing caresses. Since antiquity, humans have borne witness to the wind and relied on it to navigate the seas. And yet, despite its presence at the heart of human experience, the wind has evaded scrutiny in our chronicles of the past.... Alain Corbin sets out to illuminate the wind's storied history. He shows how, before the nineteenth century, the noisy emptiness of wind was experienced and described only according to the sensations it provoked. Imagery of the wind featured prominently in literature, from the ancient Greek epics through the Renaissance and romanticism to the modern era, but little was known about where the wind came from and where it went. It was only in the late eighteenth century, with the discovery of the composition of air, that scientists began to understand the nature of wind and its trajectories. From that point on, our understanding of the wind was shaped by meteorology, which mapped the flows of winds and currents around the globe. But while science has enabled us to understand the wind and, in some respects, to harness it, the wind has lost nothing of its mysterious force. It still has the power to destroy, and in the wind's ethereal presence we can still feel its connection with creation and death."--Publisher.

Uniform Title

Rafale et le zéphyr. English

Alternative Title

Rafale et le zéphyr.

Subject

• Winds in literature > History
• Winds in art > History
• Winds > Social aspects
• Wind gods
• Winds > History
• Winds
• Winds in art
• Winds in literature
• Social aspects

Genre/Form

• History.
• Informational works.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 127-143) and index.

Language (note)

• "Originally published in French as La rafale et le zéphyr : histoire des manières d'éprouver et de rêver le vent by Alain Corbin © Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 2021."--Title page verso.

Contents

1. The inscrutable wind -- 2. The winds of the common folk -- 3. The Aeolian harp -- 4. New experiences of the wind. The balloon "at the head of the wind" -- The sandstorm in the desert -- The wind in the sequoias -- 5. The tenacity of the Aeolian imagination in the Bible -- 6. The epic power of the wind -- 7. The fantasy of the wind in the enlightenment -- 8. Gentle breezes and caressing currents -- 9. The enigma of the wind in the nineteenth century -- 10. Short strolls in the wind of the twentieth century -- 11. The wind, the theater, and the cinema.

Call Number

JFD 23-1393

ISBN

• 9781509552054
• 1509552057

LCCN

2022940495

OCLC

1368009569

Author

Corbin, Alain, author.

Title

A history of the wind / Alain Corbin ; translated by William A. Peniston.

Publisher

Cambridge, UK ; Hoboken, NJ : Polity, [2023]

Edition

English edition.

Type of Content

text

still image

cartographic image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 127-143) and index.

Language

"Originally published in French as La rafale et le zéphyr : histoire des manières d'éprouver et de rêver le vent by Alain Corbin © Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 2021."--Title page verso.

Added Author

Peniston, William A., 1959- translator.

Research Call Number

JFD 23-1393