Cheap transistor radios spread the revolution into isolated rural households by 1959.

Evidence

That simple, cheap and ubiquitous miracle of the modern age, the transistor radio, had brought the war into the most remote Algerian homestead. To possess a transistor, says Frantz Fanon, “was solemnly to enter into the war”. Already by 1959 more than five separate stations, located safely abroad, were beaming their transmissions to Algeria, so that millions of families could hardly avoid following the course of the revolution, discussing it and arguing over it among themselves. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1228

Categorization

• XREF: The transistor as an insurgent medium parallels the chapter’s theme of political imprint outrunning military damage — and echoes the book’s earlier treatment of media and communication.