Words at War: World War II Era Radio Drama and the Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist (Studies and Documentation in the History of Popular Entertainment)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.87 (727 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0810844133 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Words at War describes how 17 radio dramatists and their actors fought a war of words against fascism abroad and injustice at home. Beginning in the late 1930s, the commercial networks, private agencies, and the government cooperated with radio dramatists to produce plays to alert Americans to the Nazi threat. They also used radio to stimulate morale. This book discusses that partly successful effort and the response of the radio personalities involved. Readers in the era of the current World Trade Center terrorism crisis will be particularly interested to read about censorship, scapegoating, and the government's role in disseminating propaganda and other issues that have once again. Veterans' groups, the FBI, right-wing politicians, and other reactionaries mounted an assault on them to drive them out of their professions. This book discusses commercial drama series such as The Man Behind the Gun, network sustained shows such as those of Norman Corwin, and government-produced programs such as the Uncle Sam series. The book is largely based on the author's interviews with Norman Corwin, Arthur Miller, Pete Seeger, Arthur Laurents, Art Carney and dozens of others associated with radio during its Golden Age. The
Midwest Book Review said Enthralling, documented, and thoroughly "reader friendly". Words At War: World War II Era Radio Drama And The Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist by freelance writer, educator Howard Blue is an enthralling, documented, and thoroughly "reader friendly" history of radio broadcasting in America during World War II, and the subsequent Cold War-era politically oriented crackdown that left a blight on the creative talent of on-air vocal drama that was quite as pervasive and detrimental. "several authentic reviews" according to A Customer. "This may well be the best book on American radio ever written." Paul Buhle, Brown University, author of Popular Culture in America, etc."A fascinating story told in a compelling fashion." Ken Mueller, Radio Curator, The Museum of Television & Radio". masterly, Blue stands with Barnouw and Dunning, and that is high rank indeed."Norman Corwin"a tour de force of research and writing, "Prof. Tim Crook. Goldsmith' s College, Univ
Howard Blue spotlights a medium largely neglected in the literature on the blacklist. He has retrieved a valuable story and begun a long and complex academic investigation into the role of radio drama as propaganda and the value of audio drama texts in cultural studies. (Tim Crook, Head of Radio, Senior Lecturer, Media Law and Ethics, Media and Communications Dept., Goldsmiths' College, University of London)Ultimately, it is a chilling statement about censorship and scapegoating, one that increases the reader's sense of incredulity over how the nation could have so rapidly descended to such an iniquitous level following a war whose very essence was grounded in a desire
His article on radio drama appears in Encyclopedia of Radio, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers (2002). Howard Blue is a freelance writer, translator and former teacher. Two of his translations appear in An Anthology of Russian Literature (M.S. . Sharpe)