An American Epic

There is a theory which says modern technology with its computerization of thought and elaborate servo-mechanisms has taken the romance out of life. With machines and electronic gadgetry doing so much, we hear it said, what’s left for man?

The story of David Sarnoff, told here in sympathetic accents by veteran journalist Eugene Lyons, proves this lament has got things pretty well turned around. Like every other refinement of human enterprise, the technological revolution is itself the product of tenacity and genius. Sarnoff’s singular career demonstrates that there is as much scope for daring and enterprise in the Age of the Electron as in any other. Sarnoff is, of course, the presiding genius of the Radio Corporation of America and of its subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company. He is the man who pioneered, in dizzying succession, American radio broadcasting, the development of the nationwide network, the perfection of television, and—most recently—the final stunning success of compatible color TV. He has led the way to the whole complex of marvels now considered most typical of our electronic era.

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M. Stanton Evans

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There is a theory which says modern technology with its computerization of thought and elaborate servo-mechanisms has taken the romance out of life. With machines and electronic gadgetry doing so much, we hear it said, what’s left for man?

The story of David Sarnoff, told here in sympathetic accents by veteran journalist Eugene Lyons, proves this lament has got things pretty well turned around. Like every other refinement of human enterprise, the technological revolution is itself the product of tenacity and genius. Sarnoff’s singular career demonstrates that there is as much scope for daring and enterprise in the Age of the Electron as in any other. Sarnoff is, of course, the presiding genius of the Radio Corporation of America and of its subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company. He is the man who pioneered, in dizzying succession, American radio broadcasting, the development of the nationwide network, the perfection of television, and—most recently—the final stunning success of compatible color TV. He has led the way to the whole complex of marvels now considered most typical of our electronic era.