The book’s wide-ranging exploration of the interrelations between the media and postwar anti-war movements
makes it required reading for anyone interested in their history, and for anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century social movements more broadly.
Technology and Culture
Christopher Hill's new book is especially welcome at a time when the political environment is ever more fraught and divided, while protest movements, both left and right, seek to use new media to win support in a rapidly changing landscape. He has written a persuasive and salutary study of the interactions of media organizations with civil society and the state.
Michigan War Studies Review
A revealing book about the interactions between the media and political movements in sixties Britain. It blends history and communications theory to offer new insights into the cultural Cold War and to challenge prevailing views on Britain’s radical decade.
Tony Shaw, Professor of Contemporary History, University of Hertfordshire, UK
This important book reveals how radical politics and new communications technologies were deeply entangled in the history of Cold War-era Britain. Drawing on extensive original research into the anti-nuclear movement, Christopher R. Hill shows how activists reconfigured existing traditions of political protest for a mass media age. It will be of great interest to scholars in history and communications studies.
Helen McCarthy, Reader in Modern British History, Queen Mary University of London, UK
In this timely and convincing account, Christopher Hill reframes postwar political history by showing how the changing format and reach of mass communication shaped shifts in cultural authority, political strategy, political protest, and the relationship between the leaders of radical movements and ordinary participants. This book is necessary reading for anyone interested in the relationship between information ecologies and campaigns for a more egalitarian political order.
Radhika Natarajan, Assistant Professor of History & Humanities, Reed College, USA
Hill is particularly skilled at pulling apart careful distinctions in class dynamics ... through this captivating work we see ways in which television worked to promote radicalism.
EuropeNow