Written by leading scholars in the field, this book is an internationally relevant, cutting-edge reassessment of both current methods and practices in television historiography and of assumptions about television history itself. The book focuses on debates about the canon, on institutions, texts and audiences, and the interconnections between these distinct areas. Through discussions and case studies, it covers a wide selection, from television's approaches to immigration and natural history to economic histories of television, the framing of television aesthetics, and problems in constructing a television canon. Each section opens with the editor's overview of the historical research and an appendix details the main research resources for television historians in the UK.