Radio and the Politics of Sound in Interwar France, 1921–1939 (Cambridge Social and Cultural Histories, Series Number 22)

In December 1921, France broadcast its first public radio program from a transmitter on the Eiffel Tower. In the decade that followed, radio evolved into a mass media capable of reaching millions. Crowds flocked to loudspeakers on city streets to listen to propaganda, children clustered around classroom radios, and families tuned in from their living rooms. Radio and the Politics of Sound in Interwar France, 1921-1939 examines the impact of this auditory culture on French society and politics, revealing how broadcasting became a new platform for political engagement, transforming the act of listening into an important, if highly contested, practice of citizenship. Rejecting models of broadcasting as the weapon of totalitarian regimes or a tool for forging democracy from above, the book offers a more nuanced picture of the politics of radio by uncovering competing interpretations of listening and diverse uses of broadcast sound that flourished between the world wars. In December Of 1921, Three Years After The Armistice That Ended The First World War, A Former Army Radio Transmitter On The Eiffel Tower Broadcast France's First Public Radio Program, Composed Of Weather And Stock Bulletins And A Short Musical Concert Performed In A Rudimentary Studio Nearby. A Decade Later, Twenty-five State-run And Commercial Stations Were Transmitting Radio Broadcasts Across France. Radio Had Evolved From The Pastime Of A Few Tech-savvy Wireless Amateurs Into A Mass Media Capable Of Reaching Millions Of Listeners. Urban Crowds Gathered On City Streets And In Stadia To Listen To Fiery Propaganda Speeches Broadcast Via Loudspeaker, Schoolchildren Clustered Around Radio Receivers In Their Classrooms, And Families Tuned In To Music And News From The Comforts Of Their Living Rooms. By 1936, The Composer And Music Critic Emile Vuillermoz Could Write In The Illustrated Weekly Le Miroir Du Monde That French Audiences Were 'gorging Themselves Tirelessly In Uninterrupted Listening To Radio, Sound Films, And The Phonograph'-- Radio Broadcasting And The Soundscape Of Interwar Life -- Disabled Veterans, Radio Citizenship, And The Politics Of National Recovery -- Cosmopolitanism And Cacophony : Static, Signals, And The Making Of A Radio Nation -- Learning By Ear : Popular Front Politics, School Radio, And The Pedagogy Of Listening -- Dangerous Airwaves : Propaganda, Surveillance, And The Politics Of Listening In French Colonial Algeria -- Conclusion: Paris-mondial : Globalizing The Voice Of France. Rebecca Scales. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.