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'The trumpet of the night': Interwar communists on BBC radio

Harker, B

Authors

B Harker



Abstract

This article revisits the relationship between the Communist Party and the BBC in the interwar period, arguing that Communism was a spectre that haunted the early BBC, inhabiting the vision that shaped its formation. More particularly, it argues that Communists proved an influential if uneven presence on BBC radio in the 1930s. It is about Communists on the wireless in both senses: it recovers Communist presence on the airwaves across BBC departments and regions; it also restores to view a body of pre-war Marxist analysis of the technology and cultural form or radio, of the institution of the BBC, and of the possibilities for oppositional interventions. Drawing upon a range of sources from radio listings, Communist Party publications, BBC records, and the declassified MI5 files of broadcasting Communists, it situates the work of Communists on the radio—and the ensuing patterns of BBC blacklisting and censorship— in relation to the histories of both institutions through a tumultuous period.

Citation

Harker, B. (2013). 'The trumpet of the night': Interwar communists on BBC radio. History Workshop Journal, 75, 81-101. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbs035

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Apr 1, 2013
Deposit Date May 2, 2013
Journal History Workshop Journal
Print ISSN 1363-3554
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 75
Pages 81-101
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbs035
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbs035
Related Public URLs http://hwj.oxfordjournals.org/


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