Radio Utopia
Postwar Audio Documentary in the Public Interest
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5704161 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jason Loviglio (0000-0001-5493-9097, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 886-887 |
| Publication date | 2011-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jar420 |
| OpenAlex | W2315049264 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Matthew C. Ehrlich's slender, well-researched book examines an often-neglected era of U.S. broadcasting history between the end of World War II and the rise of television. His particular focus, the short-lived blossoming of audio documentary, provides a vantage point from which to consider the dramatic changes in technology, politics, and culture during a period that begins in postwar idealism and ends in Cold War “realism.” Radio Utopia is organized chronologically as well as by network and artist, so that we get a somewhat recursive look at the changes wrought by the arrival of magnetic recording tape, the relaxation of network rules against using recorded “actualities,” and the darkening geopolitical climate as Cold War realpolitik replaced the utopian internationalism epitomized by Norman Corwin's 1947 series “One World Flight.” We also get a sense of how the various networks and writers responded to changing political and aesthetic currents. At one level, this is the story of the life and death of the postwar phase of New Deal liberalism and one-world internationalism that were products of the Great Depression and World War II, respectively. The book begins with Edward R. Murrow's triumphant return from Europe, determined to bring the same urgency and sense of purpose to the postwar situation in the United States as he had to his reporting from London during the blitz. “We’ve seen what radio can do for the nation in war. Now let's go back to show what we can do in peace!” Murrow exhorted his CBS colleagues in 1945, right before the network's president William Paley named him vice president of public affairs (p. 2
Art · Art history · Economic history · Idealism · Internationalism (politics · Liberalism · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Realism · Realpolitik · Sociology · Utopia · World War II · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.18 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2017 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |