That's where I learned my Buck Rogers and by this standard, as pulpy as it was in ways, the TV series was a big letdown. This story was one of America dominated by 'Hans' (aka the Chinese... and that was quite a few decades back!) who had impervious airships, impervious cities, and disintegrators for offense and point defense.
Meanwhile, all that the successors to a smashed and depopulated America had left were a bunch of regional tribes (Susquehannas, Delawares, etc) that fought with one another and stayed away from the Han cities.
Rogers arrives, via a non-space time trip (cold sleep of a sort still applies), and knows a bit about 20th century conflict and starts working to help the tribes get together and find ways to engage the Hans despite their technological superiority.
It's a bit like a 2nd American Revolution story if you really want to think of it in such a way.
Warning: Hans are a bit of a nasty depiction of what are obviously future Chinese. Pulp works that this was emulating often made the 'evil oriental' a staple so this is in that vein. But the story as a revolution by pulling together low-tech tribes and getting them up to where they could take on super-science baddies was fun when I was younger.
When I saw the TV series.... let's just say Deering was much more dangerous in the books....