America Unabridged: The Readers Respond

Your issue was an excellent and very comprehensive summary—except for the fact that there was no mention of the medium that shaped generations from 1925 to 1965, radio. This is easily rectified. John Dunning’s On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio , published in 1998 by Oxford University Press in New York, is a stunning work of history that deserved a Pulitzer Prize. Dunning is a brilliant writer. He left nothing out in its 820 pages, from the “A & P Gypsies” to “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.” His essays on Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and soaps like “One Man’s Family” are invaluable. His extensive coverage of radio newscasters and commentators during those years cannot be found anywhere else. Thanks for listening.