20th
21st
A01=Bruce Lenthall
alienation
america
american
argument
audience
Author_Bruce Lenthall
broadcast
Category=JBCT
Category=NHTB
century
consciousness
consumption
contemporary
critique
cultural
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
era
famous
government
historical
history
james rorty
masses
persuasion
popular
production
public
time period
united states
usa
war of the worlds
well known
william orton
zeitgeist
Product details
- ISBN 9780226471921
- Weight: 397g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jul 2007
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Orson Welles' greatest breakthrough into the popular consciousness occurred in 1938, three years before Citizen Kane, when his "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast succeeded so spectacularly that terrified listeners believed they were hearing a genuine report of an alien invasion - a landmark in the history of radio's powerful relationship with its audience. In "Radio's America", Bruce Lenthall documents the enormous impact radio had on the lives of Depression-era Americans and charts the formative years of our modern mass culture. Many Americans became alienated from their government and economy in the twentieth century, and Lenthall explains that radio's appeal came from its ability to personalize an increasingly impersonal public arena. His depictions of such figures as proto-Fascist Charles Coughlin and medical quack John Brinkley offer penetrating insight into radio's use as a persuasive tool, and Lenthall's book is unique in its exploration of how ordinary Americans made radio a part of their lives. Television inherited radio's cultural role, and as the voting tallies for "American Idol" attest, broadcasting continues to occupy a powerfully intimate place in American life.
"Radio's America" reveals how the connections between power and mass media began.
Bruce Lenthall is director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and adjunct assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.
