TV Snapshots: An Archive of Everyday Life

Spigel (Frances E. Willard Professor of Screen Cultures, Northwestern Univ.; Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America) uses midcentury photographs of people posing next to television sets to construct a fascinating study of Americana. It may be difficult for those born in the 21st century to understand why TVs were once status symbols in the home, but Spigel deftly “reorients television studies away from the programs on screen” and instead pushes readers to consider the ways Americans constructed and performed identity via portraits with their TV sets. She considers television’s place in the rise of the civil rights movements and depictions of queer identity. A particular strength is the book’s wide-ranging critical analysis, which explores everything from Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes, to Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, to pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager. Finally, Spigel connects these photographs to the digital era and the concept of new media. Extensive citations and a bibliography are included.