15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
{{Mediawiki:kindleoasis}}[[File:Democratic_sound_1.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|<i>The Democratic Sound</i> by Fred Turner]]
Historians have always had a tough time writing about media. The danger of technological determinism tends to loom over any discussion of technologies such as television or the Internet—the risk of arguing that a particular medium or device causes people to behave or think a certain way. That fear has been present since the earliest days of media studies, when the War of the Worlds and the pioneering audience research of Paul Lazarsfeld and the Bureau of Applied Social Research in the 1930s raised questions about the “effects” that mass media had on people, both as individuals and groups. Meanwhile, the power of Hitler’s megaphone implied that people as a mass were pliant, susceptible to a sort of top-down manipulation that sits uneasily with most historians, with their concern for contingency, complexity, and agency in the past.
Today, a new generation of historians are considering the rich and complicated place of media within cultural, political, and economic history. Works such as Elena Razlogova’s The Listener’s Voice (on radio), Fred Turner’s The Democratic Surround (on avant-garde multimedia), and Nicole Hemmer’s forthcoming Messengers of the Right (on conservative media) promise to tell us much about the manifold ways that technologies of communication intersect with the politics of art, class, gender, race, and other dimensions of the human experience.
#Raymond Williams, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/product/television-technology-cultural-form-97808052050150415314569/ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=41307UTF8&p_cv camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0415314569&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=KMNCIHVLVWGTGLEI Television: Technology and Cultural Form]''''' (Routledge Classics, 1974)#Elizabeth Eisenstein, '''''[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521299551/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0521299551&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=GNZ3TFCJJLZNY5LJ The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe''']'' (Cambridge University Press, 1979)#Paul Edwards, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/product/0262550288/closed-world-computers-the-politics-of-discourse-in-cold-war-america-9780262550284ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=41307UTF8&p_ti camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0262550288&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=6PAPPLXL433QTUP6 The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America]''''' (The MIT Press, 1996)#Lynn Spigel, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/product/0226769674/make-room-for-tv-television-and-the-family-ideal-in-postwar-america-9780226769660ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0226769674&linkCode=41307as2&p_ti tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=44LXIF2FZQQWQDRW Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America]''''' (University of Chicago Press, 1992)#Alain Corbin, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/product/village-bells-the-culture-of-the-senses-in-the-nineteenth-century-french-countryside-97802311045000231104502/ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=41307UTF8&p_cv camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0231104502&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=LEHNFW6ILMNQRBZC Village Bells: The Culture of the Senses in Nineteenth Century French Countryside]''''' (Columbia University Press, 1998)#Susan J. Douglas, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/product/0816644233/listening-in-radio-the-american-imagination-9780812933000ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0816644233&linkCode=as2&tag=41307dailyh0c-20&p_ti linkId=6DJLEIXGVKNQYSO6 Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination]''''' (University of Minnesota Press, 1999)#Paul Starr, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/product/0465081940/creation-of-the-media-political-origins-of-modern-communications-9780465081943ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0465081940&linkCode=41307as2&p_ti tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=QCMDJ7XWTWNRE3BS The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communication]''''' (Basic Books, 2004)#Brian Larkin, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/signal-noise-media-infrastructure-urban-culture-in-nigeria-9780822341086product/0822341085/ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0822341085&linkCode=41307as2&p_ti tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=NDGT7AWEUNFQRR2I Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria]''''' (Duke University Press, 2008)#Elena Razlogova, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/the-listeners-voice-early-radio-and-the-american-public-9780812243208product/081224320X/ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=081224320X&linkCode=as2&tag=41307dailyh0c-20&p_ti linkId=4P4UMCVW3OP6POSI The Listener's Voice: Early Radio and the American Public]''''' (University of Penn Press, 2011)#Fred Turner, '''''[http://www.powellsamazon.com/bookgp/product/022632589X/the-democratic-surround-9780226817460ref=as_li_tl?partneridie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=022632589X&linkCode=as2&tag=41307dailyh0c-20&p_ti"%20titlelinkId= JQRTOW6DTA4MDDOP The Democratic Surround: Multimedia and American Liberalism from World War II to the Psychedelic Sixties]''''' (University of Chicago Press, 2013)
[[Category:Booklists]] [[Category:History of Science and Technology]] [[Category:Media History]] [[Category:Cultural History]][[Category:History Booklists]][[Category:Expert Booklists]]
<div class="portal" style="width:85%;">
==Related DailyHistory.org Articles==
*[[Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Fathers and Christianity: Interview with Sam Haselby]]
*[[Social History of American Medicine Top Ten Booklist]]
*[[Gilded Age/Progressive Era History Top Ten Booklist]]
*[[Origins of World War One - Top Ten Booklist]]
*[[American Legal History Top Ten Booklist]]
</div>
{{MediaWiki:Science and Technology}}
