In this timely examination of television and American identity, Cummins and Gordon take readers on an informed walk through the changes that TV has already wrought-and those still likely to confront us.
Commercial television in America is less than 60 years old, yet it has had an enormous impact on what we like, what we do, what we know, and how we think. A family transplanted from the 1940s to the present day would certainly be stunned by a fundamentally different world: instead of gathering in the living room for a shared evening of radio, they would be scattered around the house to indulge their individual interests on one of a hundred cable channels; instead of a society with rigid racial and ethnic divisions, they would see people of different ethnicities in passionate embraces; and certainly they would see very different sets of values reflected across the board. They would, in short, find themselves in an unrecognizable America, one both reflected in and shaped by television, a medium that has been shown to have an unprecedented influence on our lives both for better and for worse.
By focusing on the development of television within the cultural context that surrounds it, and drawing on such phenomena as quiz shows, comedy hours, the Kennedy assassination, the Olympics, sitcoms, presidential ads, political debates, MTV, embedded journalism, and reality TV, the authors reveal television's impact on essential characteristics of American life. They cover topics as diverse as politics, crime, medicine, sports, our perceptions, our values, our assumptions about privacy, and our unquenchable need for more things. In addition, they consider the future of the medium in the light of the proliferation of programming options, the prevalence of cameras and receivers in our lives, the growing links between TV and computers, and the crossed boundaries of television throughout the world.

Programming Our Lives: Television and American Identity

Humor & Entertainment

Gordon, George

Cummins, Walter

Television

Praeger

As significant as the mansion of a great Gilded Age estate like Florham, the New Jersey country home of Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, was its landscape. This book explores how that greatest of all landscape architects, Frederick Law Olmsted,visualized 1,200 acres of woodlands and scrub growth and swamps and transformed them into a magical country retreat for a family which could afford, and demanded, "the best of the best." The book includes planning drawings that illustrate specific concepts for the development of the estate and many paste and present photographs that show what was and what is.This historical record describes the origins of the estate and the people involved--from the landscape architects of Olmsted's firm to the men who dug and planted.

Olmsted's Vision: The Landscape of Florham

History

Vanderbilt II, Arthur T.

Americas

Florham Books

Inspired by centuries of red hair lore, but especially the languorous photo on the front cover, nineteen authors created stories, poems, and an essay to reveal the special powers of the world’s redheads, the forces of their hold over the other 98 percent of humanity.

The Girl with Red Hair

Literature & Fiction

KENNEDY, THOMAS E.

Literary

Serving House Books

alled "irresponsible" and "maladjusted" by a former governor of New Jersey for an editorial he wrote while a Rutgers undergraduate, Walter Cummins has compiled essays that document a lifetime of misadventures that began before kindergarten and continued through graduate school and beyond into his teaching career.

Irresponsible and Maladjusted: Essays

Biographies & Memoirs

Cummins, 9738 Walter

Memoirs

Del Sol Press

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Books by Cummins, Walter