Matthew Hindman

APSA on the air

There is a strange omission in these debates.  In calling for political science to have a "stronger public presence" (in Putnam's words), scholars have ignored the historical period when the public presence of political science was at its zenith.

This paper looks at a  nearly forgotten episode in the early history of radio.  From  1932 to 1936, the APSA sponsored a nationwide radio program on NBC.  Entitled "You and Your Goverment," it was run by some of the most famous scholars in the discipline's history, including Charles A. Beard and Charles Merriam. Incredibly, the show aired on Tuesday nights after Amos 'n' Andy--guaranteeing a lead-in audience of tens of millions. Six percent of the APSA's membership--and nearly all of it's leading lights--were featured in the most prominent time slot in broadcast history.

At the start of the broadcasts, the committe organizing the broadcsats declared that they were "the greatest single opportunity directly to effect citizenship in the United States that has ever been offered."  The program signified "the opening of
the door of wider usefulness for the political scientist." Yet a few years later, when NBC cancelled the program, these same political scientists had changed their tune, calling broadcasting "a positive menace to culture and democracy." 

The political scientists blamed the network and the public, while ignoring or excusing their own errors.  Seven decades later, as political scientists again try to make themselves useful to the public, some of these same errors look likely to be repeated.  

Click here for a .pdf file of the conference paper.  The full citation follows:

Hindman, Matthew. 2007. "Amos, Andy 'n' the APSA: Politicals Scientists, the Public, and the Origins of Commercial Broadcasting." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.  Chicago, IL: April 11-14.