(Rubens, Bodleian, £30)
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As told in this history of the wireless, in 1922 just 150,000 people regularly listened to the radio. Fewer than 20 years later, that number had expanded to 34 million. Radio was once the cutting edge in home entertainment. A couple of generations before the first internet cafés were opened, someone attempted pretty much the same thing by opening a ‘radio café’ in an electrical shop. Enthusiasts of the medium built radio sets of their own. The advent of the radio had a huge impact - particularly on the speed of broadcast news - and even prompted the adoption of ‘standard time’ across the country. Listen In contains contemporary photographs, adverts and even cartoons, all presented in the sumptuous manner you’d expect from the Bodleian. It’s a fascinating and detailed document of the game-changing impact of an historically consequential technology.
This review was first published in Teach Secondary magazine. To compare the version I submitted with the one actually published, please go here: