{"title":"Caleb Smith","description":"\u003cp\u003eCaleb Smith’s works offer a richly textured exploration of \u003cem\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/em\u003e, blending keen observation with thoughtful reflection. His writing invites readers to consider the subtle interplay between craft, material, and meaning, often revealing the stories behind everyday objects and creative processes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith titles like \u003cstrong\u003eThoreau's Axe\u003c\/strong\u003e, Smith delves into the intersection of history and artistic expression, providing a fresh perspective on how history shapes contemporary creativity. His books are ideal for readers who appreciate insightful, carefully crafted narratives that celebrate the artful details of life.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"thoreaus-axe-by-caleb-smith-9780691214771","title":"Thoreau's Axe","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow nineteenth-century \"disciplines of attention\" anticipated the contemporary concern with mindfulness and being \"spiritual but not religious\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eToday, we're driven to distraction, our attention overwhelmed by the many demands upon it—most of which emanate from our beeping and blinking digital devices. This may seem like a decidedly twenty-first-century problem, but, as Caleb Smith shows in this elegantly written, meditative work, distraction was also a serious concern in American culture two centuries ago. In \u003cem\u003eThoreau's Axe\u003c\/em\u003e, Smith explores the strange, beautiful archives of the nineteenth-century attention revival—from a Protestant minister's warning against frivolous thoughts to Thoreau's reflections on wakefulness at Walden Pond. Smith examines how Americans came to embrace attention, mindfulness, and other ways of being \"spiritual but not religious,\" and how older Christian ideas about temptation and spiritual devotion endure in our modern ideas about distraction and attention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSmith explains that nineteenth-century worries over attention developed in response to what were seen as the damaging mental effects of new technologies and economic systems. A \"wandering mind,\" once diagnosed, was in need of therapy or rehabilitation. Modeling his text after nineteenth-century books of devotion, Smith offers close readings of twenty-eight short passages about attention. Considering social reformers who designed moral training for the masses, religious leaders who organized Christian revivals, and spiritual seekers like Thoreau who experimented with regimens of simplified living and transcendental mysticism, Smith shows how disciplines of attention became the spiritual exercises of a distracted age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47464727249132,"sku":"9780691214771","price":57.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691214771-thoreau-s-axe.jpg?v=1775051908"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/caleb-smith.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}