Her Stories

“Her Stories is the definitive account of a sphere of televisual expression long overlooked and too often maligned, told clearly and compellingly by an accomplished historian and committed viewer whose research has left few stones unturned. A major contribution to our understanding of American television and its intersection with women's lives, traced across more than seven decades.” -- Michele Hilmes, Professor Emerita of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Her Stories offers an important history of American soap operas, from the genre's transition from radio to television in the 1950s and its heyday in the classic network era to its diminished significance in the age of streaming. Elana Levine's rich industrial history smartly mines scripts, trade journals, and production notes, and sponsors' memos. Most significantly, it places these developments into the larger context of women's everyday lives and the changing politics of gender.” -- Lynn Spigel, author of * TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television *
"For soap fans, past and present, who wonder why the shows they love have disappeared, or deteriorated beyond recognition, or who think they know what could-have-should-have been done, if only, Elana Levine’s new book, Her Stories, connects the dots with a combination of nuance and rigorous research." -- Lynn Liccardo, Soap Opera Critic and author of * as the world stopped turning... *
"Elana Levine has crafted a comprehensive history that is about so much more than daytime dramas. In Levine's research, soap operas are also about cultural impacts, articulations of gender, and the production of media texts as both economic and cultural objects. . . . As soap opera become relics of television past, Her Stories becomes a valuable account of media history." -- Linda Levitt * Popmatters *
"A fascinating study of the history of soap opera . . . full of wonderful details. . . .  Levine makes clear that despite the widespread dismissal of soap operas, they were far from marginal to the history of television, but rather absolutely central." -- Kelly Faircloth * Jezebel *
"Elana Levine is a longtime fan of soap operas, so in Her Stories, she merges personal experience with extensive research to examine how the genre has shaped our understanding of gender and predicted the potential decline of broadcast network television." -- Evette Dionne * Bitch Magazine *
“Her Stories makes a compelling and rigorous case that soap opera indeed plays a leading role in shaping U.S. histories of both gender and television.... Levine’s study also, by its very existence, shows that television’s gendered past remains largely unsettled and unacknowledged – a search that is still worth pursuing.”
  -- Madeline Ullrich * View *
“With Her Stories, Levine contributes a valuable refocalization of the history of American television. By using soaps as a through line, Levine provides profound insights into the shifting standards, approaches, and trends that shaped representation and industrial structure over the course of seven decades.” -- Lauren Wilks * New Review of Film and Television Studies *
"Elana Levine masterfully examines the micro- and macrolevel issues of the American broadcast television industry through the lens of the daytime soap opera. . . . . Through the intertwining of daytime soap operas with the cultural, industrial, and economic aspects of television, Her Stories makes an airtight argument that the history of one is the history of the other." -- Laura C. Brown * Journal of Popular Culture *
“Her Stories is not just a history of soap operas.... Her Stories is a compelling and exhaustive history of American culture told through soap operas.” -- Abby Whitaker * H-Soz-Kult *
“Elana Levine’s terrific new book is accessible and authoritative, of interest to anyone concerned with the study of television, and an excellent demonstration of how to handle a complex media studies research project.” -- Christine Geraghty * Feminist Media Studies *
“In Her Stories, as in her other work, Levine does not shy away from the high stakes of her history, forging an argument that proponents of prestige television are rarely compelled (or able) to make: that...soap operas index the conflicts and character of American culture from mid-century to the present day.” -- Annie Berke * Los Angeles Review of Books *
“[Her Stories] will appeal to media scholars, broadcast and television historians, and women’s, gender and sexuality scholars.... The narrative sparkles with clear evidence from a variety of soaps and a compelling argument about the significance of soap opera to not only women’s history but also to network broadcast television history and American society at large.” -- Serenity Sutherland * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *