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Book Review—Douglas B. Craig, Fireside Politics: Radio and Political Culture in the United States, 1920–1940

The "interwar" period between the World Wars was crucial in the development of radio, and Douglas Craig suggests that exploration of the "political institutions, debate, and theory" (p. xi) of the time offer lessons for those interested in the future of democracy. Craig, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University, has written a well-researched history of the period that is innovative in its integration of political, social, and cultural theory. Craig begins his description of "the ways in which broadcasters, politicians, regulators, and listeners contested and formulated 'an honest policy' for radio" (p. xii) by reminding the reader of the importance of rumor, propaganda, and citizenship during the period. Critical theorists such as Robert McChesney and Michele Hilmes see a cultural hegemony of pluralism that allowed broadcasters to exclude diversity, instead putting in place a commercially driven "dominant paradigm" (p. xiv). Although Craig has provided exceptional archival research from the perspective of radio historian, he sometimes falls short in the integration of legal and regulatory history. For example, he sheds no new light on the important story told to Newton Minow about the origin of the public interest standard: