Radio and Politics of Sound in Interwar France, 1921–1939

In this work, Radio and Politics of Sound in Interwar France, 1921–1939, Rebecca P. Scales studies how the emerging culture of listening to the radio in France triggered a series of virulent public debates during the inter-war period on the role of radio and auditory culture in modern life. It deals with the radio management policy of the French government from 1921 to 1939, as well as the role of radio in the transformation of political dynamics in France and its empire. The sources used for this study are principally political debates and news articles on the radio. Remaining restricted to the elite and to bureaucratic circles, however, the work neglects to study the behaviour and points of view of the masses. Although relevant sources are difficult to find, some research into personal diaries, letters and other ego documents of the time could have brought a different perspective to the subject. The study posits that the radio became a platform for exchange between politicians and the general population, and aims to demonstrate France’s efforts to make radio a national enterprise. However, the use of radio in the political sphere was not without its problems, and its role remained a controversial subject up to and beyond the Second World War.