Over the last half a century, the developments in television broadcasting have exerted an immeasurable influence over our social, culutral and economic practices. The Television History Book presents an overview, written by leading media scholars, which collectively traces the history of broadcasting in two major centres of television development and export  - Great Britain and the United States.
 
With its integrated format, The Television History Book encourages readers to make connections between events and tendencies that both unite and differenciate these national broadcasting traditions. The numerous 'grey box' case studies illustrate the course of television innovation and are accompanied by lists of recommended further reading and an extensive bibliography.
 
From the origins of the public service and commercial systems of broadcasting to the current period of technological and economic convergence, this book provides an accessible overview of the history of television technology, institutions, policies, programmes and audiences.

Introduction - TV nations; institutions - from origins to stability; institutions - conflict and change; programming - from the 50s to the 80s; programming - new venues, new forms.

MICHELE HILMES is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has written several books on broadcast history, including Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States (2001) and Radio Voices: American Broadcasting 1922 to 1952 (2001). She is currently at work on a history of the mutual influence and opposition between US and British broadcasters during radio and television's formative years.

Associate Editor: JASON JACOBS is Senior Lecturer in the School of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, Griffith University, Queensland and the author of Body Trauma TV: The New Hospital Dramas (2003).