ABSTRACT
Carole Gallagher, American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993) ISBN 0-262-07146-0, $39.95 Hbk
Michael Frisch and Milton Rogovin, Portraits in Steel (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993) $49.95 Hbk, $28.95 Pbk
Larry Sultan, Pictures from Home (New York: Harry N.Abrams, Inc., 1993) ISBN 0-8109-3721-2 $39.95 Hbk
These are some of high technology’s latest buzzwords, the terms of a new language associated with the much heralded communication revolution. If the prophets of this revolution are correct, a new medium of communication-one combining the television, the telephone, and the computer-will soon be massaging the many messages of our culture.1 Once the cable is laid and the new machinery is installed, all aspects of our lives, we are told, will be transformed. By packaging a greater quantity of material more efficiently, interactive multimedia technology promises to make us all more productive and creative, perhaps even a bit smarter. The mundane routine of paying bills will be simplified, the sublime experience of reading Hamlet heightened.2
