My Account Wish List
Advanced Search
Print - Close Window
www.praeger.com/catalog/GR3128.aspx
All Greenwood Products
Television The Life Story of a Technology
Alexander B. Magoun
Book Code: GR3128
ISBN: 0-313-33128-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-33128-2
232 pages, 15 photos
Greenwood Press
Publication: 6/30/2007
List Price: $45.00 (UK Sterling Price: £25.95)
Discount Price: $40.50 Greenwood Press Fall 2008 Backlist Sale. Use code 0826. Save 10%. Ends 12/31/2008.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Series Title: Greenwood Technographies
Reviews:
  • Tracing the history of television from early inception through golden age, to the current world of flat screens, cable, and satellites, Magoun comprehensively overviews a medium now in everyone's memory. He readily admits that he neither watches television nor possesses any technical training in chemistry or physics, but these have not hampered his research skills. Magoun provides an interesting historical survey of major inventors, companies, and influences in the life story of a technology known as television. He writes from the perspective of a witness to the conception and birth of television. He continues to document its life from the role of a parent who ultimately must witness the eventual breaking away of the "child" so that it could forge ahead to build the revolutionary digital world, and he follows its eventual death as medium of choice for most people. Along the way, Magoun reveals how society has also evolved with each change in technology. Readers are left with an appreciation for an old friend that they enjoyed having around, as well as recognition of the role that television has played in making entertainment and communication what it is today. Highly recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates.
    —Choice     February 2008
  • The idea of a technography, or a biography of a technology, is intriguing, and this thorough exposition supports the viability of the concept. Magoun discusses both the personalities and the technology that came together to create television....Magoun traces television's origins and development through the advent of the VCR to today's flat-panel displays and the future of the medium.
    —School Library Journal     December 2007
  • In this history of television, Magoun not only explains the development and basic workings of this technology, but also the processes, personalities, and business decisions involved, and TV's impact on American values. In a "life cycle" framework, he traces TV from its protracted birth through the death of cathode tube TVs and resurrection in digital form. The author addresses issues relating to the paternity of inventions, government regulation, and changing broadcast standards. The book includes b&w illustrations.
    —SciTech Book News     September 2007
  • [A]n appealing read for students who should be encouraged to exercise their critical thinking skills to debate whether their digital generation spells the end of television and what they might predict in the immediate future to replace the gadgets that seem to be replacing it now.
    —GALE Reference for Students/Lawrence Looks at Books     August 2007/September 2007
Description: For better or worse, television has been the dominant medium of communication for 50 years. Almost all American households have a television set; many have more than one. Transmitting images and sounds electronically is a relatively recent invention, one that required passionate inventors, determined businessmen, government regulators, and willing consumers. This volume in the Greenwood Technographies series covers the history of television from 19th-century European conceptions of transmitting moving images electrically to the death of TV as a discrete system in a digital age. Magoun also discusses the changing face of television in the displays that people watch around the globe. Television: The Life Story of a Technology discusses significant developments in the technological and social lives of people during the history of the television. It appeals to students and lay readers alike by highlighting key events and people:
  • the American engineers and entrepreneurs such as Vladimir Zworykin and David Sarnoff who ignited the television industry;
  • the bloom of programming choices in tandem with the Baby Boom generation;
  • the developmetn of cable and satellite TV;
  • the Asians who innovated American inventions in videorecording and flat-panel displays;
  • the use of TV in wartime;
  • and the new worlds of digital and high-definition television.
    Based on the latest research, this crisply written, sometimes provocative survey includes a glossary, timeline, and bibliography for further information. Vladimir Zworykin -- whose work ignited the entire television industry
  • How the television industry and commercial programming bloomed in tandem with the Baby Boom generation
  • The late-twentieth century expansion of cable television and the decline of the broadcast networks, and the new world of high-definition television.
    The volume includes a glossary of terms, a timeline of important events, and a selected bibliography of resources for further information.
    • LC Card Number: 2007014283
    LCC Class: TK6637
    Dewey Class: 621
    PDF Catalogs:
    Greenwood Science and Health 2008.pdf
    Sale Catalog 2008.pdf
    All rights reserved. Copyright © 1999-2008 Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
    88 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881, (203) 226-3571