Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Television: The Life Story of a Technology. By Alexander B. Magoun. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. 1 vol. 209 p. $45.00. ISBN 10: 0-313-35128 -6; 13: 978-0-313-33128-2.

While early inventors were playing with electromagnetic waves, television, a snowy picture on a small screen in the early 19 ^th century, television reached its first audiences only a half century ago. Now found in almost every home in American and in multiples in many homes, this technology continues to undergo frequent modifications. Cable television, designed to allow people in mountainous areas to have television, has caused a decline in broadcast networks. Ads for mammoth flat screens and high-definition television encourage the removal of what one might have considered an adequate communication device a mere five years ago. The two-page timeline at the beginning starts in 1873 with the British discovery of photoelectric effect in selenius sparks and ends with the 2007 announcement of Apple’s iPhone. Chapters cover “Conception, 1873-1911,” “Birth of a Technology; or Invention, 1912-1928,” “Parenthood: Television’s Innovation, 1928-1941,” “Working for a Living: Television’s Commercialization, 1941-1966,” “Children of the Revolution, 1947-1987” and “The Digital Generation and the End of Television.” A few black and white photos illustrate the text, and the appendix includes a four-page glossary. It is a toss-up whether this belongs in non-fiction or reference. It does offer an 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.