James F. Hamilton is associate professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Georgia.

This is the first book to take issue with the long-standing assumptions about alternative media and democratic communications and place them in a detailed cultural and historical context. Ranging from prophecy in sixteenth-century England to the self-managed projects of critical literacy and social change of today, it assesses the historical heritage, present conditions, and future possibilities of today's remade media landscape for democratic communications.

1 Preface 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction: The Problem of the Mainstream and the Alternative Part 4 Part One-Market Formations 5 Introduction to Part One Chapter 6 1. Providentialism and Rationalist Empiricism in Early Modern England Chapter 7 2. The Emergence of Broadcasting and the Rationalization of Participation Part 8 Part Two-Struggling Against the Market 9 Introduction to Part Two Chapter 10 3. Philanthropy, Professionalization, and Social-Reform Communications Chapter 11 4. Community Media Projects and the Containment of the Mass-Culture Critique Chapter 12 5. Modernism and the Aestheticization of Dissent Part 13 Part Three-Toward New Formations 14 Introduction to Part Three Chapter 15 6. Market Radicalism and the Struggle of Participation Chapter 16 7. Democratic Communications as Critical, Collective Education 17 Afterword: Utopia and Inspiration 18 Bibliography 19 Index 20 About the Author