Review
... the novelty and value of Shandler's work is that his focus is on the representation of the Holocaust through the relatively new media of television ... Shandler's book is useful not only for those interested in the rise of Holocaust consciousness in contemporary America, but also teachers and students of media studies. (American Studies Today )
Whilst public memory of the past may often be thought as best served through the perceived permanence of monuments created from metal and stone, Shandler points to the ways in which the Holocaust has entered popular consciousness through something so transient and flickering as the television screen. (American Studies Today )
Shandler is a diligent and perceptive observer, and his book offers as comprehensive a review of a half century of flashing images as one could reasonably expect in a single volume. (Columbia Journalism Review )
Whilst public memory of the past may often be thought as best served through the perceived permanence of monuments created from metal and stone, Shandler points to the ways in which the Holocaust has entered popular consciousness through something so transient and flickering as the television screen. (American Studies Today )
Shandler is a diligent and perceptive observer, and his book offers as comprehensive a review of a half century of flashing images as one could reasonably expect in a single volume. (Columbia Journalism Review )
Product Description
The Holocaust holds a unique place in American public culture, and, as Jeffrey Shandler argues in While America Watches, it is television, more than any other medium, that has brought the Holocaust into our homes, our hearts, and our minds.
Much has been written about Holocaust film and literature, and yet the medium that brings the subject to most people--television--has been largely neglected. Now Shandler provides the first account of how television has familiarized the American people with the Holocaust. He starts with wartime newsreels of liberated concentration camps, showing how they set the moral tone for viewing scenes of genocide, and then moves to television to explain how the Holocaust and the Holocaust survivor have gained stature as moral symbols in American culture. From early teleplays to coverage of the Eichmann trial and the Holocaust miniseries, as well as documentaries, popular series such as All in the Family and Star Trek, and news reports of recent interethnic violence in Bosnia, Shandler offers an enlightening tour of television history.
Shandler also examines the many controversies that televised presentations of the Holocaust have sparked, demonstrating how their impact extends well beyond the broadcasts themselves. While America Watches is sure to continue this discussion--and possibly the controversies--among many readers.
Much has been written about Holocaust film and literature, and yet the medium that brings the subject to most people--television--has been largely neglected. Now Shandler provides the first account of how television has familiarized the American people with the Holocaust. He starts with wartime newsreels of liberated concentration camps, showing how they set the moral tone for viewing scenes of genocide, and then moves to television to explain how the Holocaust and the Holocaust survivor have gained stature as moral symbols in American culture. From early teleplays to coverage of the Eichmann trial and the Holocaust miniseries, as well as documentaries, popular series such as All in the Family and Star Trek, and news reports of recent interethnic violence in Bosnia, Shandler offers an enlightening tour of television history.
Shandler also examines the many controversies that televised presentations of the Holocaust have sparked, demonstrating how their impact extends well beyond the broadcasts themselves. While America Watches is sure to continue this discussion--and possibly the controversies--among many readers.
