From Booklist
The family radio of the 1920s was more than a disposable, noise-making appliance. It was a solid piece of furniture, the focal point of many families' living rooms. Conduits of popular entertainment, old radios were housed in formidable wooden cabinets that often featured decorative carving and grillwork. The machinery behind the facade was formidable, too: tubes, coils, wires, and other components were put together in a virtual labyrinth. There are many paeans to old radios. Most focus on what came out of them or the attractive cases that housed them, but Rutland's is about their guts. The emphasis is on radio technology--the development of the circuitry, the invention of the triode and other devices--and the work of De Forest, Marconi, and a raft of other inventors. Although parts of it are rather technical, the book on the whole is an interesting and informative social history reference. Mike Tribby
