The postcommunist transition has been characterized in Eastern Europe by the return and rearticulation of capitalism and coloniality in this region of the world. Seen from Eastern Europe, the postcommunist transition can be understood as the top-to-bottom integration of East … Continue reading “Decolonial AestheSis in Eastern Europe: Potential Paths of Liberation”
LOOKING BACK — The Decolonial Aesthetics Exhibition at Duke University The Decolonial Aesthetics Exhibition (May 4-June 5, 2011) at Duke University’s Fredric Jameson Gallery and The Nasher Museum of Art, among other venues, curated installations by scholar-artists Guo-Juin Hong … Continue reading “What/Where is "Decolonial Asia"?”
I always ask my students, grad and undergraduate, for the mid-term “exam”, to write a letter to whomever they wish. It should be an educated person who is a little bit familiar with the topic, or not necessarily. The question … Continue reading “Decolonial Aesthesis: From Singapore, To Cambridge, To Duke University”
In July of 1945, just as the conclusion of World War II was coming into view, Vannevar Bush, former dean of engineering at MIT, then administrator of the twin war-time revolutions of radar and the atomic bomb, founder of … Continue reading “As We May Think, 2012”
Social Text Collective member Anna McCarthy was a guest on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show to discuss her recent book The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950’s America.
The interview aired on the August 3rd broadcast but can be listened to in its entirety by clicking the link above.
The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America
by Anna McCarthy
Formed in the shadow of the early Cold War, amid the first stirrings of the civil rights movement, the idea of television as a form of unofficial government inspired corporate executives, foundation officers, and other members of the governing classes to imagine TV sponsorship as a powerful new form of influence on American democracy in the postwar years. The Citizen Machine tells the story of their efforts to shape U.S. political culture, uncovering a dense web of fantasies and rationalizations about race, class, and economic power that have profoundly shaped not only television, but our understanding of American citizenship itself.
