Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination

by Susan J. Douglas

Overview

The powerful effect of radio on American culture from Big Band music to Top 40 to conservative talk radio—now back in print!

Few inventions evoke such nostalgia, such deeply personal and vivid memories as radio—from Amos ’n’ Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern. Listening In is the first in-depth history of how radio culture and content have kneaded and expanded the American psyche.

But Listening In is more than a history. It is also a reconsideration of what listening to radio has done to American culture in the twentieth century and how it has brought a completely new auditory dimension to our lives. Susan Douglas explores how listening has altered our day-to-day experiences and our own generational identities, cultivating different modes of listening in different eras; how radio has shaped our views of race, gender roles, ethnic barriers, family dynamics, leadership, and the generation gap. With her trademark wit, Douglas has created an eminently readable cultural history of radio.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816644230
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	02/25/2004
Edition description:	First edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Susan J. Douglas is professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and author of Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	3
1.	The Zen of Listening	22
2.	The Ethereal World	40
3.	Exploratory Listening in the 1920s	55
4.	Tuning In to Jazz	83
5.	Radio Comedy and Linguistic Slapstick	100
6.	The Invention of the Audience	124
7.	World War II and the Invention of Broadcast Journalism	161
8.	Playing Fields of the Mind	199
9.	The Kids Take Over: Transistors, DJs, and Rock 'n' Roll	219
10.	The FM Revolution	256
11.	Talk Talk	284
12.	Why Ham Radio Matters	328
	Conclusion: Is Listening Dead?	347
	Notes	359
	Index	391