Abstract
Anthropologists in the 1920s and 1930s tended to see radio as a distraction from the core mission of studying “traditional” cultures. They ignored or disparaged the radio sets that they encountered in their fieldwork. Meanwhile in Europe at this time there was a lively debate among philosophers and other commentators about radio. Radio broadcasting played an important role in World War II. After the war, policy scientists in the United States considered it a valuable tool for national development in Africa, the Middle East, and India. Radio had been used in European colonies for administration and propaganda. It was equally suited for anticolonial struggles and movements for fundamental social change.