My first book, Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics (University of North Carolina Press, 2025), is about the connections between television entertainment and politics in the modern United States. With a focus on the television comedy All in the Family it explores how actors, writers, and producers gained a political voice at the same time that politicians, strategists, and activists turned to television entertainment to win attention, funds, and votes. From Archie Bunker’s reactionary bigotry, to Edith Bunker’s symbolic role in the Equal Rights Amendment campaign, and the show’s creator and producer Norman Lear’s defiance against government censorship, it uncovers the profound impact of television on political strategies and institutions. In many ways, it is a book about how we got to where we are today.
🏆 Winner, 2026 Center for Presidential History Book Prize, Southern Methodist University.
“In this well-written book, Oscar Winberg shows how politics remade television in 1970s America and how, in turn, television remade politics.” — Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America
“Exceptionally well-researched, this book highlights the transformative ways that entertainment television has intersected with, shaped, and influenced US political history.”—Allison Perlman, author of Public Interests: Media Advocacy and Struggles Over US Television
“In this original and engaging study, Oscar Winberg reexamines the landmark 1970s sitcom All in the Family, revealing how it reshaped the relationship between television and American politics. Drawing a compelling line from the show’s cultural influence to the rise of Donald Trump, Winberg offers a fresh perspective on media, power, and popular culture.”—John Chappell, Webster University
Listen to an interview about the book on This Day.
Listen to an interview about the book on Reckoning with Jason Herbert.
Listen to an interview about the book on Unsung History.
Read about the continued influence of All in the Family in Time.
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