The legacy of Robert A. Brady: Antifascist origins of the political economy of communications

During its formative period in the United States, the political economy of communications was profoundly influenced by the teachings of the economist Robert A. Brady. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, within the broader politic al context of U.S. anti-fascism, Brady developed a potent analysis of emerg ing authoritarian economic and cultural practices. This framework was subst antially carried over, and further developed, by the two pioneers of the po litical economy approach, Dallas W. Smythe and Herbert I. Schiller.