TELEVISION AND RADIO IN AMERICAN LIFE.

Edited by Herbert L. Marx Jr. '43. New York: H. W. Wilson Company. 1953.198 pp. $1.75.

The impact of TV upon radio, sports, education, advertising, public life, and Hollywood is here presented through the eyes of thirty well-qualified writers, critics, and other more or less innocent bystanders. The emphasis throughout is admittedly, and quite justifiably, upon television.

For educational institutions, such as Dartmouth, which are now carefully considering the glittering promises of educational TV, this latest volume in the useful Reference Shelf Series points to the experience of Western Reserve University in offering "telecourses" for credit over a commercial TV station in Cleveland, five days a week. In 1951, 103 students were taking the two courses being offered; in addition 710 non-credit students were following the courses with syllabuses secured by registering with the University. Perhaps most significant is a survey indicating that 27,500 television sets were tuned in to the program.

The ambitious politician, ever adapting himself to the evolving mores of the genus voter, will find food for thought in these articles: "The Changed Look in Political Campaigning," "Can Our Political System Survive TV?" "Should Congress be Televised?" The average televiewer, if such there be, will uncover opinion pro and con in Norman Cousins' article "Time-Trap for Children," John Crosby's "Seven Deadly Sins of the Air," and William Benton's "Three Roads to TV's Salvation."

Mr. Marx has done an excellent editorial job by selecting thought-provoking articles from a wide range of sources, by providing brief introductions to each section, and by including the results of several commercial surveys and such recent, widely in fluential material as the two articles from The NewYork Times on the proposed state-owned edu-cational television network in New York State.