Cold War, Cool Medium

"Invigorating and wide-ranging scholarship... The heart of Cold War, Cool Medium is a lively and compelling retelling of the effect of McCarthyism on television." -- Cineaste "[A] seriously intelligent history." -- Library Journal "fresh and important insights...an accurate and engrossing account for the nonspecialist, and its methodology provides a revealing context for the specialist as well" -- Brenda Murphy, The Journal of American History "thoughtful and nuanced" -- Michael C. C. Adams, Film & History "Thomas Doherty's groundbreaking new volume, Cold War, Cool Medium, [is] a sweeping examination of the collision of television and McCarthyism, and one of the most searching looks at the intersection of popular and political culture in years." -- Boston Globe "A witty, often riveting account of the simultaneous rise of television and McCarthy." -- Film Comment "A wide-ranging, impressionistic portrait of the era... Mr. Doherty, a professor of American studies at Brandeis University and a noted film historian, deftly recaps this familiar story." -- New York Observer "Doherty succeeds in illuminating both the history of television in the US in the 1950s and television's relationship to the era's anticommunist crusade... this volume carefully examines the often-overlooked political side of 1950s television. Essential." -- Choice " Cold War, Cool Medium is an excellent overview of television and American culture at a pivotal moment in United States history. It is also wittily written, with Doherty's sense of humour and irony coming through on nearly every page." -- Jennifer Frost, University of Auckland, Australasian Journal of American Studies "It is not only readable, enlightening and amusing, it does what all good books on the televisual Cold War should do: it can distinguish between hype and substance." -- Adam Piette, Journal of American Studies " "Doherty delivers an enlightening and critical reassessment of television, culture, and politics in the early 1950's." -- Michael Curtin, American Historical Review " Cold War, Cool Medium is an engaging and complex account of US commercial television during the 1950's." -- Megan Mullen, Technology and Culture "[A] superbly written analysis of the link between the rise of American television and the fall of Senator McCarthy." -- Vincent Brook, American Studies " Cold War, Cool Medium is engagingly written, offering prose that is brimming with wit and insight." -- Christine Becker, Film Quarterly