Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America

by Lynn Spigel

Book Overview

Between 1948 and 1955, nearly two-thirds of all American families bought a television set--and a revolution in social life and popular culture was launched.

In this fascinating book, Lynn Spigel chronicles the enormous impact of television in the formative years of the new medium: how, over the course of a single decade, television became an intimate part of everyday life. What did Americans expect from it? What effects did the new daily ritual...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226769674
• ISBN13: 9780226769677
• Release Date: June 1992
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Pop Culture Must

This book is not so much about what was ON TV so much as it is about how those programs reflected the American Family, sometimes in a kind of fun-house mirror. Americans invited the box into their homes, bringing the public sphere into the private sphere. In doing so they changed more than the layout of their living rooms. This book is a must-read for any student of Popular Culture, Television History or Post-War American History.