For better or worse, television has been the dominant medium of communication for 50 years. Almost all American households have a television set; many have more than one. Transmitting images and sounds electronically is a relatively recent invention, one that required passionate inventors, determined businessmen, government regulators, and willing consumers. This volume in the Greenwood Technographies series covers the entire history of television from 19the-century European conceptions of transmitting moving images electrically to the death of TV as a discrete system in a digital age. Magoun also discusses the changing face of television in the displays that people watch around the globe. Television: The Life Story of a Technology appeals to students and lay readers alike in highlighting key events and people: the American engineers and entrepreneus such as Vladimir Zworykin and David Sarnoff who ignited the television industry; the bloom of programming choices in tandem with the Baby Boom generation; the development of cable and satellite TV; the Asians who innovated American inventions in videorecording and flat-panel displays; the use of TV in wartime; and the new worlds of digital and high-definition television. Based on the latest research, this crisply written, sometimes provocative survey includes a glossary, timeline, and bibliography for further infomration.
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Editorial Reviews
Review
"In this history of television, Magoun not only explains the development and basic workings of this technology, but also the processes, personalities, and business decisions involved, and TV's impact on American values. In a life cycle framework, he traces TV from its protracted birth through the death of cathode tube TVs and resurrection in digital form. The author addresses issues relating to the paternity of inventions, government regulation, and changing broadcast standards. The book includes B&W illustrations."
-SciTech Book News
"[A]n 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."
-GALE Reference for Students/Lawrence Looks at Books
"The idea of a technography, or a biography of a technology, is intriguing, and this thorough exposition supports the viability of the concept. Magoun discusses both the personalities and the technology that came together to create television….Magoun traces television's origins and development through the advent of the VCR to today's flat-panel displays and the future of the medium."
-School Library Journal
"Tracing the history of television from early inception through golden age, to the current world of flat screens, cable, and satellites, Magoun comprehensively overviews a medium now in everyone's memory. He readily admits that he neither watches television nor possesses any technical training in chemistry or physics, but these have not hampered his research skills. Magoun provides an interesting historical survey of major inventors, companies, and influences in the life story of a technology known as television. He writes from the perspective of a witness to the conception and birth of television. He continues to document its life from the role of a parent who ultimately must witness the eventual breaking away of the child so that it could forge ahead to build the revolutionary digital world, and he follows its eventual death as medium of choice for most people. Along the way, Magoun reveals how society has also evolved with each change in technology. Readers are left with an appreciation for an old friend that they enjoyed having around, as well as recognition of the role that television has played in making entertainment and communication what it is today. Highly recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates."
-Choice
Book Description
Provides a concise and accurate history of that revolutionary technology, the television
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rich in research, and clearly presented.,
By Joseph L. Sousa "History of technology enthus... (Lawrence, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Television: The Life Story of a Technology (Greenwood Technographies) (Hardcover)
The very extensive research that is the foundation of this book has revealed a wealth of new findings to this reader, who otherwise is a regular reader of technical history writings. The very fine organization of the material and clear writing, make the book an easy read with easy assimilation of details as well as the larger picture context. While this may, or may not be the definitive text on television history, it makes a very solid contribution that others may build upon. The extensive reference system will save a lot of work to future contributors in the field. Even though the geographic scope of the book is clearly world-wide, perhaps other books will have more extensive coverage of TV developments outside the USA.
This reader is a mature engineer with several patents under his belt, and that comes from an interest in invention and admiration for inventors that goes back to childhood. I expect that this book will attract many other technically oriented readers with a an interest in inventors. This interest may cause some disappointment for admirers of Farnsworth. Even though contributions from Farnsworth are generally well documented by Magoun, their technical consequence was not always fully appreciated in the judgement of this Engineer reader. The two Farnsworth-related historic items that I would have liked to see included in the book are the use of Farnsworth image Dissectors in the 1936 German olympics, and pointing out that the English Emitron image pickup tube combined electron image storage plate inspired in Zworikin's iconoscope and the separate photo-cathode to convert photons to electrons, first used in Farnsworth's image dissector. The Emittron tube was the workhorse of English TV in the post-war period. Finally, the concept of technography provided a very effective time structure to organize the material, and it imparted a fresh perspective that helps encapsulate the TV era in it's various phases. Well done, Alex Magoun.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A highly readable account, sure to fascinate lay readers and scholars alike,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Television: The Life Story of a Technology (Paperback)
Written by Alexander B. Magoun (executive director, David Sarnoff Library), Television: The Life Story of a Technology lives up to its title with an in-depth examination of the history of a media that continues to transform the world. Though television has been prevalent only for approximately fifty years, the earliest conception of the technology that would become television had its roots over one hundred years in the past. Chapters cover the innovation that brought television into existence, and then to the masses; how its commercialization affected human culture; and how modern digital media is chipping away at television's dominance - indeed, could the Internet bring about television's final end? A handful of black-and-white photographs, a bibliography, and an index enhance this highly readable account, sure to fascinate lay readers and scholars alike.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wealth of Notation,
By
This review is from: Television: The Life Story of a Technology (Paperback)
This book is a great contributor to the technical books that, like Abramson's work before it, goes a long way toward placing a great deal of information in a single place. Unfortunately, it continues the tradition of history being written by the winners. In this case, the author being the curator of the Sarnoff library, he (intentionally or not) downplays the role of Philo Farnsworth in discovering the key to making television work, and then the many contributions Farnsworth made in refining the technology (see Joseph L. Sousa's review). However, if the reader is aware of this (and keeps in mind that the bias over at the Sarnoff Library against Farnsworth is so bad that over at their website's review of "The Farnsworth Invention" they spend a great deal of time denigrating the idea of patent law and accusing Farnsworth of being a worthless drunk) they will find a wealth of library information here.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
