For February, 2021, the University of Chicago free ebook is
Radio's America: The Great Depression and the Rise of Modern Mass Culture by Bruce Lenthall.
Quote:
Radio had an enormous impact on the lives of Depression-era Americans. In Radio's America Bruce Lenthall charts the formative years of our modern mass media. Telling a story with echo's of today's Internet-driven extermism Lenthall documents how many Americans became alienated from their government and economy in the early twentieth century, and explains that radio’s appeal came from its capability to personalize an increasingly impersonal public arena. His depictions of such figures as proto-Fascist Charles Coughlin and medical quack John Brinkley offer penetrating insight into radio’s use as a persuasive tool, and Lenthall’s book is unique in its exploration of how ordinary Americans made radio a part of their lives.
|
Just read the first few chapters and so far, an interesting read.