The Portable Radio in American LifeAs an artifact of culture, the portable radio is an unusual but perfect subject for investigation by archaeologist Schiffer. Seeing the history of everyday objects as the history of the life of a people, he shows how the portable radio has reflected changes in American society as surely as clay pots have for ancient cultures. |
Contents
The Origin of Everyday Things I | 1 |
Capturing Invisible Waves | 6 |
Wireless Technology Comes of Age | 17 |
Custodians of the Cultural Imperatives | 32 |
The Radio Craze | 48 |
Birth of the Boom Box | 63 |
Radio Gears Up for a Golden Age | 87 |
A Portable Depression | 100 |
Childs Play | 153 |
Revolution in Miniature | 161 |
Shes My Transistor Sister | 179 |
Made in Japan | 202 |
The Triumph of Cryptohistory | 224 |
| 233 | |
Illustration Credits | 241 |
| 245 | |
The Portable Radio Revival | 117 |
ΙΟ A Parade of PostWar Portables | 133 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
advertised amateurs American Archives Center Armstrong ATWATER KENT audion battery became become began broadcasting circuit color TV commercial components cost Crosley cryptohistory crystal sets cultural imperative David Sarnoff decade detector early fifties Edwin Armstrong Emerson 747 engineers entertainment horn speaker Hugo Gernsback industry inventions invisible waves Japan late fifties late twenties listen magazines manufacturers Marconi midget military million miniature tubes Motorola nian Institution NMAH Operadio personal portable Philco phonograph plastic played pocket portable pocket radio popular port portable radio post-war printed circuit board radio companies radio makers Radio-Craft Radiola Raytheon RCA's receiver Regency TR-1 Sarnoff selling shirt-pocket portable shirt-pocket radio Smithso sold SONY speaker stations style subminiature tubes sumer superheterodyne table models television Tesla Texas Instruments tinkerers tiny tion transistor portables transistor radio tube portables tuning Westinghouse wide wire wireless York