Entertaining the Nation Author:Jack Williams Has Britain become a less literate culture since 1945? How far has television changed the nation's leisure hours? How has the presentation of sex and violence on 'the box' reflected social change? These are just some of the issues discussed in this book - the first true examination of the role of television in British popular culture since the S... more »econd World War. Watching television has been a central feature of British Life in the second half of the twentieth century. Since the 1960s the great mass of the population have spent more of their non-work time watching television than on any other activity. This book concentrates on what the great majority of the population were interested in, and considers what can be learned from this about the nature of society since 1945. Far from being trivial, as it is often regarded, television is shown to be a powerful agent in both the representation and formation of social relations.« less