Via Eighteenth Century Studies., Review of John Fea's The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America. Reviewer notes Fea's primary claim that the Enlightenment was about self-improvement. "This gives an entirely different focus from those studies of rural American Enlightenment that address the question of modernity through agricultural improvement."
A study of the rise in popularity of radio in rural America in the 1920s and the portrayal of farmers in the press during this time. In the effort to promote the general value of radio, the press focused on how it was adopted by farmers. The media exaggerated the shortcomings of farm life, supporting the increasingly urban and modern way of life, and isolating and marginalizing rural dwellers.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 148 Document Number: C23638
Notes:
Presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in San Antonio, Texas, August 2005. 24 pages., Describes several early wireless groups, including the rural telephone cooperatives that emerged in the early 1900s because Bell and other independent companies had little interest in serving rural areas.
