Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives

Author Jane Brox offers a profound perspective on silence, exploring its impact on those who seek it and those who are silenced. Through intertwined histories of the penitentiary and the monastery, Jane Brox illuminates silence’s complexity, influencing ideas of the self, soul, and society. Brox traces silence’s transformative power in monasticism, from Medieval Europe to the 20th century, examining its influence on Thomas Merton’s struggle between silence and speaking out against war. Additionally, she explores how the monastic cell influenced Eastern State Penitentiary, a product of one of the Founding Fathers’ ideas about redemption through imposed isolation, which proved misguided. Brox’s exploration of silence’s diverse meanings invites us to contemplate our own relationship with it and its transformative potential in our lives.

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