This is the BBC: Entertaining the Nation, Speaking for Britain, 1922-2022

In the hundredth year of the British Broadcasting Corporation, historian Simon J. Potter looks back over the hundred year history, asking if the BBC is really the 'voice of Britain', and what comes next for British public broadcasting. 2022 marks the centenary year of the British Broadcasting Corporation. As Britain's most famous and influential broadcaster, the BBC faces a range of significant challenges to the way it operates, and perhaps to its existence, from the government but also from a rapidly changing media environment. Historian Simon J. Potter explores the hundred year history of this corporation, drawing out the roots of these challenges and understanding how similar threats - hostile politicians and prime ministers, the advent of television - were met and overcome in the past. Potter poses the question 'Is the BBC the voice of Britain?', exploring its role in changing wider culture and society, promoting particular versions of British national identity, both at home and overseas. The BBC has long claimed to speak for the British people, to the British people, and with a British accent, and Potter explores how far these claims have been justified with this exciting new study which covers the establishment of the BBC Empire Service and the World Service, and focuses on people, programmes, and politics to understand the Corporation's engagement with changing ideas about culture and society in Britain, including issues of class, gender, and race.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - A Century of the BBC 1: Public Utility, 1922-1939 2: Propaganda, 1939-1945 3: Losing Control, 1945-1959 4: Transformation and Stagnation, 1960-1979 5: On the Market, 1980-1999 6: Going Digital, 2000-2022 Prospect - The BBC after Broadcasting

About the Author :
Simon J. Potter is Professor of Modern History at the University of Bristol. His previous publications for OUP include News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System, 1876-1922 (2004), Broadcasting Empire: the BBC and the British World, 1922-1970 (2012), and Wireless Internationalism and Distant Listening: Britain, Propaganda, and the Invention of Global Radio, 1920-1939 (forthcoming, 2020). As well as his scholarly contributions, he has also written books, articles, and reviews for a general readership.

Review :
In just over 300 pages the author gives a comprehensive history of the BBC and also provides much in the way of analysis of the relationship between the broadcaster and state. A sharp-eyed survey of the BBC's increasingly fraught relations with other people, notably politicians and listeners. In my view, this book is a masterpiece because it blends perceptive political analysis and thorough historical perspective with an informed evaluation of future challenges. Like a good physician, [Potter] is not squeamish about sticking in the scalpel to reveal some grisly realities ... lucid book provides a useful account of the key staging posts in the life of this national institution... leads readers on a pleasant canter, starting from the BBC's small beginnings... this book offers value for money as a general introduction to the BBC and a good read overall. ... academic and astringent... [earns its] place on the ever lengthening shelf of Beebology. Potter's book This is the BBC can best be seen as a summarising study of the abundant BBC literature, with a special focus on broadcasting's international function.