Fireside Politics

During the 1920s and 1930s, the rising popularity of radio prompted subtle but significant changes in how Americans conducted public business and conceived of their community. In Fireside Politics, Douglas B. Craig provides the first detailed and complete examination of the role of radio within political culture between 1920 and 1940--the golden age of radio, when it commanded huge national audiences without competition from television. Fireside Politics builds upon a wide variety of sources: two major NBC manuscript collections, government documents, papers from the Republican and Democratic parties, broadcasters' memoirs, newspapers, magazines, and the writings of interwar radio enthusiasts, sociologists, and political scientists. Craig begins by covering the development of radio and its evolution into a commercialized, networked, and regulated industry. He then focuses on how the two major parties used the new medium in their national contests between 1924 and 1940, examining radio in political campaigns and debates from the perspectives of the networks, the parties, and listeners. Finally, Craig broadens the argument to encompass interwar notions of citizenship and good taste and their effect on radio broadcasting and its chief actors. He also compares the American experience of broadcasting and political culture with that of Australia, Britain, and Canada. Fireside Politics delivers a thoughtful account of the ways radio metamorphosed into a medium of political action–a force that affected campaigning, governing, and even ideas of citizenship and civility.