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Telling the stories behind television´s approaches to race relations, multiculturalism and immigration in the ´Golden Age´ of British television, the book focuses on the 1960s and 1970s and argues that the makers of television worked tirelessly to shape multiculturalism and undermine racist extremism.

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1. The Vision of a Nation: Introduction 2. The First Bridge: Programmes for Immigrants on British Television 3. Race in News and Current Affairs: Principles and Practice 4. Dealing with Racial Extremes: News and Current Affairs under Pressure 5. What´s behind the Open Door? Talking Back on Race in Public-Access Broadcasting 6. The Rise and Fall of the Racial Sitcom: Laughter and Prejudice in Multicultural Britain 7. Struggling for the Ordinary: Race in British Television Drama 8. Conclusion

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"Schaffer´s training and expertise comes through in the carefully constructed chronological narratives in the individual chapters which he writes. ... The book tells us much about the power of television, the attitudes of the elites who controlled TV and the inherent nature of racism in post-war Britain. It would be impossible to teach a course on contemporary Britain without using The Vision of a Nation." - Contemporary British History

"Schaffer´s study ... builds on existing work by scholars like Sarita Malik, Stephen Bourne, Karen Ross and Darrell Newton, but adds a good deal that is new, in what is a well-researched, copiously referenced and excellently presented historical account." - European Journal of Communication

"The sources used are extensive and impressive. ... [A] very readable and thoroughly researched volume on a complex and often contentious topic. It should be of interest to students and researchers of media and cultural studies together with historians of modern Britain." - Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

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Gavin Schaffer is Professor of Modern History at the University of Birmingham, UK. His previous books include Racial Science and British Society, 1930-62 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

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