flesh out the full story of media activism in points out that activists in Mississippi were the context

of the civil rights era. He provides concerned primarily about voting, fair employreaders interested in this volatile time a com- ment, poverty, and education. Changes in loprehensive, detailed account of the stations, cal television were not foremost in their their policies, the struggle to change program- minds. But, subsequent changes in voting, ming, and the fight to integrate both of them. education, and economic opportunities creThis battle led to the Federal Communications ated an environment for transformation at the Commission's denial of WLBT's license, stations. which the US. Court of Appeals upheld in Thus, in this cogently written book, 1969. Classen offers a holistic model for historical Watching Jim Crow shows how an align- inquiry, one in which media practices were not ment of consumerism with local civil rights the initial point for activism. Rather they were and communication-access interests prompted "intertwined with concerns of greater social reform and change at the stations. But Classen salience such as poverty, hunger, crime, educanotes that as he was conducting additional tion, and health care. In the multifaceted adresearch for this book his interview subjects dress of such social problems, local media reminded him of broadcasting's "secondary practices also became targeted and legitimate status" within the civil rights movement. He civil rights issues only as they were integrated

within larger issues and contexts." Consequently, as he brilliantly demonstrates, significant changes in broadcast policies did not stand alone, any more than they do today. Policies are pan of larger social concerns, visions, and movements so media use and industry practices cannot be divorced from their larger contexts. In summary. Watching Jim Crow vividly reminds scholars that the study of television presents ways to understand society and ourselves. I heartily recommend this book for those who want a dynamic look at civil rights, television, and American culture.
Louise Benjamin University of Georgia

Dadge, David. Casualty of War: The Bush Administration's Assault on a Free Press. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2004. 293 pp. $26.
In Casualty of War, David Dadge does not tell us much about the history of mass communication. But in the flurry of recently published critiques on the erosions of civU liberties in the age of terror, he has framed a convincing argument against the suppression of First Amendment rights in a crisis. Indeed, he advocates increasing the flow of information so the world will have a broader and more detailed picture of the good (democracy and peace) and bad (extremism and terror). This remarkably well-grounded book builds a strong case against suppression by describing the effects of Bush administration tactics in the United States and around the world. He covers old territory by brilliantly critiquing Bush's ill-fated and ill-conceived Office of Strategic Influence; Cpndoleeza Rice's admonition to media owners to restrict images of Osama bin Laden; and the overt and covert government charges that journalists who were not with the president were with the terrorists. The fresh dimensions in Dadge's work come from his forays into uncharted territory. In chilling detaU, he describes the Bush administration attempts to "tone down" the cratic valueshuman rights, civil liberties, and Qatar-based Al Jazeera nerwork and the social justicein the breach. government's invasive (and, fortunately, unReaders looking for theoretical constructs successful) attempts to squelch a Voice of in Dadge's work will be disappointed. He America interview with a TaUban leader. weakly attempts to connect his solution Dadge can go where most American press more information and less constraintto a critics have not gone because he studies free less-than-convincing interpretation of the expression trends from Vienna, where he is Hutchins Commission report. There is not editor of the World Press Freedom Review M tht even a mention of Milton and the promise International Press Institute. He also has writ- of truth in a fair fight. The book also may not ten extensively on international business law find favor among traditional historians, who and that experience is reflected in a masterful might wish he had framed his contemporary global perspective not evident in most do- study with some context on how previous mestic press criticism. administrations have suppressed press freeThough Dadge's little-known tales from doms. abroad are frightening, his most compelling But beyond the task of assembling a first argument comes at the expense of smaller draft, Dadge did not set out to write history. nationssome, in fact, prospective democra- He also did not intend to create, sustain, or ciesthat used the Bush suppression doc- debunk theory. He did, however, succeed in trine to put many of the same constraints on documenting and writing a new chapter of emerging or newly found freedoms. In es- old history that warns us of what happens sence, he writes, the emulative behavior that when rhetorical constructions, such as the "war got democracy rolling is responsible for stop- on terror," provide enough perceived reason ping it in its tracks. Such restrictions on ex- to abuse all types of actual freedoms. pression are justified publicly by foreign leadFrederick K B/evens ers as true American values, leaving true demoUniversity of Oklahoma

Lewes, James. Protest and Survive: Underground GI Newspapers during the Vietnam War. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003.243 pp. $67.95.
Late in the Vietnam War, when disillusionment had spread within the U.S. military as well as among civilians, an underground press of GI newspapers emerged at military bases and their communities. Writing in irreverently named papers, such as Attitude Check (Camp Pendleton, California) or Shakedown (Fort Dix, Newjersey), soldiers criticized and ridiculed military life and the war, and promoted anti-war demonstrations. Because of likely retaliation, the GI journalists largely were anonymous. The newspapers were circulated surreptitiously on military bases and more openly at and-war coffeehouses in nearby communities. In Protest and Survive, James Lewes has located and examined 130 of these newspapers, which were published between 1968 and 1970. In 720 articles, he found that in content, they often resembled stories in the civilian underground press of the 1960s and 1970s.

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But unlike the civilian journalists, who have received somewhat more scholarly attention, the GI journalists were "embedded" in the military subculture and faced possible imprisonment, transfer, or discharge for trying to exercise freedom of expression through their newspapers. For that reason, the author argues forcefully that they represented a unique protest movement and underground press that has been under-appreciated by scholars of that era, especially communication historians. Most of the book is dedicated to analyzing the GI press from the theoretical perspective of British cultural studies. In particular, the Lewes argues that the GI press should be seen as a product of its environment: a military subculture. Because of their subordinate status in the military, the journalists of the GI press represented more of a truly revolutionary response to the war and to repression than

the civilian protest press. By this reasoning, these ephemeral newspapers is a significant the GI press should be viewed as part of a research achievement. Also, the Lewes effecrevolt among military conscripts rather than tively uses examples from text and cartoons as part of the civilian anti-war movement. that illustrate the vigorous protest against The author acknowledges that the effec- military authority and the war. The book's bibtiveness of the GI press and the and-war sen- liography contains a helpful listing of the timent among the soldiers is hard to mea- newspapers as well as significant dates in this sure. Military authorities considered dissent- period. However, the location of the archives ers to be criminals and did not separate them that contain the newspapers is not always evistatistically. A handful of dissenters was ar- dent from the notes. rested and imprisoned early in the war, but as The book is drawn from the author's disdisenchantment with the war increased after sertation. The literature review comprises nearly the 1968 Tet offensive, military authorities one-fourth of the text (thirty-seven of 152 became more conscious of the public reaction pages), and the overt emphasis on theory may to repressing anti-war activists. However, the make it more useful for graduate students than visible presence of the anti-war movement as a supplemental text for undergraduates. But inside the military lent greater credibility to ci- this example of analyzing "underground" vilian protests. presses from a cultural studies perspective is likely to launch a stimulating discussion. One of the strengths of Protest and Survive is the impressive list of newspapers loSteve Ponder cated for examination and analysis. Finding University of Oregon

Newman, Kathy M. Radioactive: Advertising and Consumer Activism, 1935-1947. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 250 pp. $21.95.
In'Radioactive:Advertising and Consumer Newman terms "audience intellectuals," to sumer movement after World War II. This Activism, 1935-1947, Kathy Newman, an as- make sense of consumer behavior. At the same movement demonstrated the important role

sociate professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, employs a keen eye for historical detail and skillful writing abilities to argue that there was a dialectical relationship between radio advertising and consumer activism in the 1930s and the 1940s. In this concise volume, she examines the intersecting histories of the construction of radio audiences as consumers and the radiooriented activism of consumer advocates. For her, the radio advertising appeals that helped Americans to imagine themselves as consumers and exhorted them to buy also "inadvertently reminded working-class consumers that their power could be strategically deployed, both on the job and in the marketplace." Drawing on Dallas Smythe's concept of the audience community and the history of consumer culture, Newman addresses intellectuals who researched audience behavior, advertisers, broadcasters who produced programs, and listeners who responded in complex ways to programs and advertising appeals. This holistic approach makes this project exemplary for its attention to production, dissemination, and reception within mass communication processes. The first half of the book examines intertwined histories of the construction of the radio consumer and of the development of radio-oriented consumer activists. As advertisers developed techniques to mobilize radio listeners, they turned to researchers, whom

time, the tremendous power ascribed to broadcast advertising motivated activists and "consumer intellectuals," such as James Rorty, Ruth Brindze, and Peter MoreU, to fight for reform and democratization of the airwaves. While these chapters address the philosophical principles of audience research and consumer democracy, the second half of the book uses three case studies to chronicle how "average" men and women respond to what they perceived as radio's ills. One chapter examines the United Electrical Workers' boycott of Philco to protest the company's sponsorship of anti-labor news commentator Boake Carter. Another chapter explores the relationship between often female soap opera producers and their audiences. Soap opera producers such as Irna Phillips and Jane Crusinberry encouraged their listeners to respond to and interact with their programs. In response, listeners believed they had a right to comment on the programs based on their consumption of advertised products. Finally, a third chapter charts the relationship between the burgeoning consumer movement and broadcasters. The key figure in this chapter is Donald Montgomery, a consumer activist who produced a program, "Consumer Time," for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While fearful broadcasters curtailed this effort at on-air consumer education, organizations like the National Association of Consumers (NAC) mobilized a broad-based con-

women played as consumers, and, when needed, as consumer activists, such as during postwar buyers' strikes by housewives angry at abrupt repeals of price controls. In sum, Newman ably demonstrates how the category of radio consumer was produced by advertisers, how this concept validated consumption as a form of work, and how audiences used this validation to act individually and collectively to improve their working conditions. While well written and cogendy argued as a whole, the book has a few minor problems. At times, the structure within each chapter and between chapters is choppy. Organized in a rough chronology, swift movement between the Depression era. World War II, and the postwar period elides the subde distinctions in cultural contexts that influenced the motivations and responses to consumer activism. For example, Newman suggests that organizations Uke the NAC "helped to sow the seeds of a feminist revival just as the NAC itself was collapsing in the 1960s;" but one page earlier she notes the NAC disbanded in 1957. In addition, although she argues that the impulse behind consumer activism was linked to struggles for social equality, this reviewer was surprised to not see any references to the religious right's recent boycotts of entertainment companies such as Disney to protest what they perceived as anti-Chrisdan themes in the company's products and corporate poli-

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