The Citizen Machine Governing by Television in 1950s America

"In this engaging and original study, Anna McCarthy examines the high civic hopes once held for U.S. commercial television by the liberal social, political, and business elites who made up the & governing classes." (Journal of American History) "McCarthy has written about an aspect of the & golden age of television seldom detailed in histories of early television. This is the story of how some of the largest American commercial corporations of the 1950s used the new medium of television not with the sole intent of advertising their products but to effect social reform on television viewers in order to create & good citizens. Highly recommended" (Choice)