LAUSR

but the ‘palaces of industry’, which were welcomed by the industrialists’ idea of modernity, affected the bodies of people living nearby. Working in these new urban spaces, often in miserable conditions, had a great impact on the lives of the working forces. This is a well-known and documented story, but Kenny makes us aware ‘how corporeal concerns underlay the varying discourses through which the urban environment was constructed’ (p. 86). But even the body itself was represented through industrial metaphors, as machines of great productivity, but ‘subject to deterioration and overuse’ (p. 118). Once the work was done, the workers turned to the poorest, bleakest places. Kenny’s discussion of the homes not only shows middle-class obsessions with decency, moral standards and deep-rooted fears of public disorder and vice, but also how these obsessions were ‘bolstered by the increasingly rigid distinction between spaces and activities considered public, and those understood to be of private nature’ (p. 121). Clean, tidy and well-kept houses were fundamental in enhancing families’ morality. Besides, the language the hygienists used in order to move the public authorities into action was based on bodily experiences. From a gender perspective, women bore a particular responsibility, as a comfortable home would prevent their men from getting out, protecting them from alcohol abuse. The public sphere of the city was manifested in street scenes, the final chapter of Kenny’s bodily experiences. Streets underwent a significant transformation in the era of modernization, highlighted not just by the construction of major, sensory delightful boulevards of leisure and consumption, but also the side-effects of the reorganization of public spaces. The risks associated with modern traffic (automobiles, trams), massive public street gatherings and modern boulevards were that, supposedly, criminal types would be attracted, turning the modern city into a place of danger. Modern streets also induced new discussions about the body itself, manifested in sensorial debates on public toilets and the routes of funeral processions. Kenny’s ‘spatial-bodily’ journey has delivered a very rich book, written in an evocative style. It is a pity the publisher did not put more effort into increasing the visibility of the images. They are more than just illustrations of the text, as the images are vital visual sources and would help the author in advancing his arguments. This criticism aside, urban historians who are sceptical of cultural and sensorial history should read this book, as it sheds a challenging new light on the interplay between sensorial encounters and the city. The Feel of the City shows how sensual histories reveal a different understanding of modernity, confronting the rationalist, sophisticated planning and economic models with a more intuitive and bodily reading of cities.