Domesticating the Airwaves

Dr Maggie Andrews is a Senior Lecturer in Popular and Modern History at Staffordshire University, UK with over twenty years of experience in teaching History, Cultural Studies and Media Studies.

• Introduction; 1. Domesticity and Broadcasting in the inter-War Period; 2. Early Domestic Goddesses; 3. The Gardener and the Chef: Broadcasting Celebrities 1930s style; 4. Domesticity under Fire; 5. From Austerity to Consumer Wonderland; 6. Broadening Domestic Realities: Soaps, Documentaries, and Working Class Domesticities; 7. Contesting the Domestic: Chat Shows, Lifestyle and Ethics; 8. Domesticating the Public Sphere in the Era of Digital Revolution; 9. Idealised Domesticities; Afterword: An Uncertain Future.

This is a rich historical study of the complex and often problematic role that broadcasting has always played in constructing notions of gender and domesticity in British society. Maggie Andrews skilfully examines a number of radio and television programmes from the inter-war years to the present day which focus on domestic ideology and practice. She identifies a raft of cultural factors and, with compelling analysis, demonstrates how these have promoted marked changes to the tone, the style and the substance of broadcast programmes over the period. This is an important book for our time: telling insights about the way cultures both influence and are influenced by broadcasting cannot fail to appeal to anyone with a serious interest in recent British social, cultural and political history