Heartland TV: Prime Time Television and the Struggle for U.S. Identity
“A groundbreaking book, highly original in concept and persuasive in its execution. Johnson elegantly rewrites the history of American television with an eye to its geographical imaginary.”-Anna McCarthy,New York University&%8220;Network chieftains, advertising executives, and primetime performers generally fly over the heartland with barely a glance, but it's never far from their thoughts, or ours. In this remarkable analysis of American television, Victoria Johnson cogently explains why Middle America matters: on the screen, in the home, and in public life.”-Michael Curtin,author ofPlaying to the World's Biggest Audience"Johnson shows how the opposition of "heartland" and various urbane, coastal foils went through a series of permutations, alternately deprecating and valorizing middle America through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s."-Choice,