Listening In

Radio and the American Imagination

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by Susan J. Douglas

University of Minnesota Press

Due/Published March 2004, 448 pages, paper

ISBN 0816644233

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 an 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. Douglas has created a most readable cultural history of radio.