Mystic Chords of Memory: Civil War Battlefields and Historic Sites Recaptured

Customer Reviews:

The greatest test for The Great Republic.......2000-01-14

Writing on the U.S. Civil War must be a daunting task for any author. The vast coliseum of scholarship where so many have been and so many are yet to go leaves little scope for something different or new. Somehow, though, David Eicher's "Mystic Chords of Memory" is a refreshing photographic look at America's supreme hour.

The author has seemingly visited every battlefield, seen every monument, heard every story, read every text, letter and gravestone. From Harper's Ferry to Ford's Theatre, there are "then and now" photographs of many of the key places in that great conflict. The "now" photos from Eicher's own albums are splendid, evocative modern portraits of their black and white kin placed nearby. The photographs are matched by Eicher's simple and plain prose, brisk with quotes from the old generals, their soldiers and their families.

Eicher's book seems to share a similar ancestry to Ken Burns' masterful civil war television series. Both employ simple and elegant approaches to the task of conveying meaning to the conflict. Like Burns, Eicher doesn't waste time with interpretative Rubik's cubes. To Eicher, the Civil War is basic history - bloody, tragic, wasteful - but pure and simple history just the same. Get on with the pictures, stories and bonding with the old heroes; leave quarrel and contention to others.

Book Description

Alexander Gardner's photographs are among the most memorable images of the Civil War, and they fill this powerful biography, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in History. "This album of Gardner's work is nothing less than sensational!" -- Booklist

Customer Reviews:

seldom seen.......2001-04-17

Seldom does one get such a close-up glimpse at the true horrors and tragedies on the battlefields of the American Civil War, or to stare into the faces of those whose lives were entertwined with the making of America's history. But D. Mark Katz gives us that opportunity with Witness To An Era: The Life and Photographs of Alexander Gardner, published by Rutledge Hill Press. Though many of the images that have become instantly recognizable to students of history are often credited to the well known photographer, Matthew Brady, Witness To An Era sets the record straight with meticulously documented research, enabling future generations to appreciate Gardner's work. For the first time in print, Katz brings the reader not only the vast collection of Gardner's photographs, many of which he was able to reproduce directly from the original prints, but the intriguing story of Gardner himself and his eventful career during and after the Civil War.

As one of the most photographed of historical figures as President Abraham Lincoln was, none managed to capture the inner man as Gardner did. But with over 277 pages containing photos of people, places, illustrations and letters, it is difficult for one to say which is the most extraordinary in capturing a moment --a moment frozen in time for eternity, for those to gaze upon and ponder its significance in how we became to be today... from what was yesterday.

Booklist remarks, "This album of Gardner's work is nothing less than sensational," and Civil War Web agrees. No Civil War library would be complete without these magnificent photographs of America's most epic saga.

The Portrait: Professional Techniques and Practices in Portrait Photography
Average customer rating:

Get the NEW 2003, Same cover completely updated!!!!

Really for professional portrait photographers

Incredible Illustrations

Overview of portrait business, lacking in technical detail

This is a must have book !

The Portrait: Professional Techniques and Practices in Portrait Photography
KODAK
Manufacturer: Sterling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0879855134

Book Description

Covers the key aspects of the art and practice of professional portrait photography. Offers expert guidance with chapters by top professional portrait photographers on topics such as selecting equipment, refining lighting and exposure techniques, and establishing and operating a successful portrait business. Also covers specialty portraits, fashion and glamour photography, plus tips on presenting portraits to increase sales. 120 pages (over 150 illustrations), 8-1/2 x 11.

Customer Reviews:

Get the NEW 2003, Same cover completely updated!!!!.......2007-10-04

There is a newer updated edition, I have this one, the 1998 and saw my friends 2003 and it is much improved. Very different photographers featured. It is confusing because the cover is identical! I am shocked it is not offered here.

Really for professional portrait photographers.......2002-03-15

This book really addresses the professional portrait photographer and how he or she should run their portrait studio. Photography techniques are glossed over on the assumption that you are familiar with the basics. Customer relationships, on the other hand, receives considerable attention from the author.

Incredible Illustrations.......2001-01-15

The photos in this book are inspiring and the text is comprehensive and easy to follow. Each technique is demonstrated with one or more beautifully composed photographs.

Overview of portrait business, lacking in technical detail.......2000-12-20

I asked the posters on a large format board for opinions on books on portrait photography, specifically detailed information on lighting techniques and posing, and several HIGHLY recommended this book.

Unfortunately, it was not what I looking for. However, it is a fine overview of the portrait business in general, and I recommend it for someone intending to enter the business. It contains discussions on selling, dealing with the customers, and the studio environment, and discusses different types of portraiture, such as glamour, wedding and corporate.

There was one chapter on lighting techniques, but wasn't as in depth as I would have liked. Moreover, methods were discussed and not demonstrated explicitly in the accompanying photos. Main light patterns such as closed loop, open loop, butterfly and broad are discussed without giving photos showing what they are. I still have little idea what they are.

Similarly, the chapter on equipment actually contained very few photographs portraying the equipment discussed.

The lack of "technical" photos demonstrating the equipment and technique is very uncharacteristic of Kodak's books. It seems that they included a collection of portrait photographs, sprinkled throughout the book, often having little connection with the subject discussed. However, this book also has much less of the "Kodak advertising" that their other books suffer from.

I felt that this book, overall, was rather good for what is was supposed to be. My criticisms are small and hopefully would be taken as suggestions to improve the next printing. Someone actually wanting to start a portrait business will require deeper technical knowledge than that provided here. I will be reading "The Lighting Cookbook" by Jenni Bidner to pursue this knowledge. I still haven't found anything that discusses posing, though.

This is a must have book !.......1999-08-09

Their are very few books that really are worth their price. This book is one of the rare educational books that every photographer should have to have to read over and over!

The Big Book of the Civil War: Fascinating Facts About the Civil War, Including Historic Photographs, Maps, and Documents

Average customer rating:

The Big Book of the Civil War: Fascinating Facts About the Civil War, Including Historic Photographs, Maps, and Documents
Joanne Mattern
Manufacturer: Courage Bks.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0762428562

Gettysburg Battlefield: The Definitive Illustrated History

Average customer rating:

A visual remembrance...
FORTY-NINE Errors and Problems with this Poor Book
The photo angles are poor.
Great "then and now" book
Solid "Then and Now" Pictorial History of Gettysburg

Gettysburg Battlefield: The Definitive Illustrated History
David J. Eicher , and James M. McPherson
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0811828689

Book Description

Gettysburg Battlefield is the definitive illustrated history of the largest and deadliest military campaign ever waged in the Western Hemisphere. It was fought 140 years ago this July, in the farmlands of Pennsylvania. Years in the making, it draws together the most complete collection of Gettysburg imagery ever published in a single volume along with a robust narrative. The author takes the reader on a day-by-day journey through the battle, illustrated throughout with more than 480 photographs, many of them rare, including shots of Robert E. Lee and George Meade. Two visual features of this book are particularly compelling: Period photographs of key battlefield sites - taken just as the guns stilled - are juxtaposed with images of those same sites today. Three-dimensional maps were created especially for this book and offer a distinctive perspective on military strategy. Essays by civil war experts and a foreword by historian James M. McPherson complete this handsome and authoritative history. An essential addition to the Civil War library, Gettysburg Battlefield is a compelling chronicle of a legendary conflict and the ultimate pictorial record.

Customer Reviews:

A visual remembrance..........2007-06-05

I first visited Gettysburg in November 2005 and I've been fascinated by this historic battlefield ever since. Some of it may be due to the fact that my great-great-grandfather fought there and was wounded on the second day of fighting in the Wheatfield. In touring Gettysburg today, it's often difficult to get a feel for just how bad the carnage was. Gettysburg Battlefield: The Definitive Illustrated History by David J. Eicher is probably the best means to see Gettysburg through the eyes of Civil War soldiers.

Eicher includes hundreds of photographs that show scenes from Gettysburg, both before the battle and immediately afterward. But then he also includes modern day photos taken of the same locations from the same angles. These before and after pictures are haunting. It is hard to look at the peaceful Devil's Den of today and imagine the violence that occurred there. Eicher also includes dozens of maps as well as portraits of key figures.

What makes Gettysburg Battlefield more than just a picture book is the commentary. In addition to Eicher's own narrative, he includes 15 different essays from 14 guest Gettysburg experts. Eicher was looking for little known stories about this famous battle. There were two that I found interesting. One involved the NY 45th Infantry. Many of these German-Americans were captured and then transported to Southern prisons. Their monument is off the beaten path next to a soccer field. Another recounts the saga of The God Tree--one of a dozen witness trees that still survive from 1863.

One thing kept me from giving Gettysburg Battlefield five stars, and that is that fact that there are a number of errors. But overall, the photographs are the main reason I purchased this book and they alone are well worth the expense. This truly is a "visual remembrance."

FORTY-NINE Errors and Problems with this Poor Book.......2007-01-15

This book is full of errors. Here are some, but not all:

P.12 Buford commanded a division not a brigade
P.17 A.A. Humphreys is neither a major general in this image nor at Gettysburg. He was a brigadier.
P.21 Meade took command three, not four days before the battle.
P.22 There were eight Union Corps commanders at Gettysburg, not seven.
P.30 Sykes did not command all the regular army infantry units at Gettysburg. There were US sharpshooters in the 3rd Corps.
P.32 Buford commanded a division, not a brigade, at Gettysburg.
P.34 and 141 The same image is used twice in the book with slightly different captions.
P.41 Image was recorded in 1867, not 1865.
P.47 The photo of the railroad cut at Gettysburg is in fact a photo of Fredericksburg.
The author even provides a modern view of the site at Gettysburg!
P.50 Buford's monument was erected in 1892 not 1895
P.60 Early's Division did not have nearly 6,300 men at Gettysburg, it's closer to 5,500.
P.63 The light bulb atop the Peace Light memorial was replaced in the 1980s not the 1990s.
P.68 Robert E. Rodes was killed outright at Third Winchester, not mortally wounded.
P.77 John Burns and Abraham Lincoln did not attend services in Gettysburg. It was a political rally.
P.78 The view from the square to the Courthouse, is south, not west.
P.82 This image was recorded in July 1886 not c. 1861-1865. More than TWENTY YEARS off.
P.83 The photo was taken in 1886, not "ca. 1861-1865."
P.84 View was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.85 View was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.101 The Confederate attack did not swing past the Sherfy house "on the way toward" Devil's Den.
P.112 Confederate movements against the Round Tops did not occur to the north of Devil's Den.
P.112 The other branch of Plum Run fronts Cemetery, not Seminary Ridge.
P.113 Van Horne Ellis was not a fireman before the war; he was a Sea Captain, amongst other things.
P.117 The map key places the fighting at Devil's Den at least a mile away from where it took place.
P.117 On p. 126, Eicher calls it "unfortunate" when Samuel Crawford's middle name is misspelled, yet he spells Vannoy Manning's first name as "Vanney." Unfortunate, indeed.
P.121 The John T. Weikert House is not a wartime structure.
P.122 The photo was taken from Houck's Ridge not from "the area of the Stony Hill." It was recorded in the 1880s, not "ca. 1860s." Any Gettysburg author should know that there were no monuments on the field outside the cemetery until 1878. As to location, to not know that Rose Woods would be in the photographer's way from the Stony Hill to the Round Tops demonstrates a significant lack of understanding about Gettysburg.
P.123 This image is referred to as a variant of that on page 121, yet author is uncertain whether it was Mathew Brady's crew. Of course it is--it's a variant.
P.123 Ellis Spear was a Captain, not a Lt. Col. at Gettysburg. Off by two ranks.
P.124 The 93rd Pennsylvania Monument pictured was erected in 1884, not 1888.
P.128 The 1st Texas fought with the 15th Georgia in Rose Woods, not the 15th Alabama, which was on Little Round Top. Even the most popular regiments at Gettysburg are subject to inaccuracies in this book.
P.131 The white buildings in the distance, clearly on Seminary Ridge, are not those of George W. Weikert which were near Rose Woods.
P.132 The view looks east-southeast, not northeast.
P.135 The map key places the fighting at Devil's Den at least a mile away from where it took place.
P.135 Dan Sickles did not visit his leg at the Army Medical Museum every year.
P.138 and 166 There are two of the EXACT same historic photos of Little Round Top in two different places labeled as different photos. There are TWO DIFFERENT MODERN views roughly 150 feet apart for the SAME PHOTO! Finally, he labels one of the views as July 6, 1863, and the other as July 6 or 7, 1863. How could someone writing a book of this sort not know that he had two of the exact same photo? How can there be two different moderns?
P.139 The map key places the fighting at Devil's Den and Little Round Top at least a mile away from where it took place.
P.142 In speculating that this image is among the last recorded by Gardner's crew at Gettysburg, the date given is July 6, 1863. Yet, elsewhere in the book, Gardner views are dated as late as July 9 (p.78).
P.143 The two images were not recorded from different angles. They are the same angle but with different cameras.
P.145 Photographer (Gardner), location of the image (crest of LRT) and month (July) of both images are all known. All are listed as questionable or "unknown" in the book. Incredibly the famous "Warren Rock" and the distinctive tree next to it appear in the image on the right.
P.146 The photo labeled as Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is in fact it is a photo of General Edwin Stoughton. Of all of the people to not recognize at Gettysburg Joshua Chamberlain!
P.158 While so many modern images are poorly recorded in this book, this one is among the weakest. See pp. 157, 161, 167, 172, 179 and others for more flawed examples.
P.169 This book claims to be definitive yet is missing many, many, known images of wartime Gettysburg. On this page, this series is represented by but three of five different, known images.
P.195 Top view was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.195 Bottom view was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.201 Top left view was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.202 All four historic Tyson views on this page were taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.212 The Copse of Trees is in the wrong place. It almost seems a deliberate effort to make mistakes on Gettysburg's most well-known features.

The photo angles are poor........2006-04-28

I have visited the Gettysburg battlefield on numerous occaisions. Everytime that I'm there I bring with me many, many photographs from Brady, Gardner etc. As a result, after hours and hours of exploration, I've been able to recreate 'then and now' photos that are far more accurate than what this book offers. The 'now' photos in this book are not lined up accurately with the 'then' photos. Sure, it is the same area, but with a little extra effort they certainly could have recreated the angles that Brady, Gardner, etc. had shot from. Yet, while the photos are definatley disappointing, this book still provides a wealth of information about the Battlefield. I'm sure that any novice will enjoy this book. If you really want to see what it looks like now, however, you will need to go there for yourself, or explore more specific works.

Great "then and now" book.......2005-11-01

This book is much better than most of the before and after pictorials. These people giving this a one star are obviously friends of another author, or just have a personal grudge. Mistakes are always made in books, that is why people have second additions, etc. Who cares if there is one picture of Fredericksburg in the book. One picture out of 500 makes the book a total failure. I think the only failure here is the idiot who wrote the bad review. Excellent book and you know it!!!!!!!!

Solid "Then and Now" Pictorial History of Gettysburg.......2005-07-29

Eicher has done a mostly superb job despite a few errors here and there. The Chamberlain one has been pointed out, and in Ted Alexander's essay on the first Union soldier to die at Gettysburg, he points out that a Cpl. William Rihl of the New York Lincoln Cavalry was killed at Fleming's farm on June 22, 1863 in action with Jenkins' Confederate Cavalry.

On the other hand, the masterful Noah Andre Trudeau in his: "Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage" notes that Private George Sandoe, of Captain Robert Bell's Pennsylvania cavalry squadron, was the first to die at Gettysburg, killed on the 26th,on the town's western outskirts, while valiantly trying to stop the onslaught of Lige White's cavalry, attached to John Gordon's division of Jubal Early's corps.

I have always been intrigued by the story of Bell's little cavalry squadron, which tried to stop Gordon's initial march into the town, and was scattered for its efforts. Bell and his men seem to drop off the pages of history, save for Trudeau's work.

Eicher also seems to subscribe to the same criticisms of Alfred Pleasonton (the Union Cavalry commander)that Edward Longacre, and more recent historians have seem to suggest. Still Pleasonton performed very capably and competent when he was allowed to by Meade. Meade didn't like cavalry, and as an engineer officer inspecting and improving lighthouses along America's eastern coast before the war, had developed a dislike for Pleasonton's father, a government bureacrat. Simply stated, Pleasonton didn't not have the slack that Phil Sheridan had, later on, under Grant. Eicher also suggests that the doomed Elon Farnsworth never received his Brigadier General commission when he was killed in Kilpatrick's senseless cavalry charge in the vicinity of the Round Tops immediately following Pickett's repulse. When nearly all other sources, including Longacre, suggested that he had.

The Cavalry actions on the third day are as usual, minimally covered. The brisk fight between Custer and Stuart so recently well-covered in Tom Carhart's "Last Triumph" at least rates an two-page essay. The Farnsworth charge only merits two paragraphs.

Eicher was wise to invite fellow Civil War Historians to provide a number of very well-written essays, and while all of them are exceptional, the beginning one written by James McPherson, arguably our greatest living historian, is a compelling one that urges all Americans who love their history to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield and get that sense of what is was like then.

Photograph choices are very, very good. Some of Eicher's photographs could have easily been taken by anyone with a Kodak instamatic and a good printer, but overall they still convey very well the now as opposed to the then. Many of the "old" photographs collected seem to have been printed with a deliberately "grainy" image - note the photo of Buford and his staff, or the remarkable one of Lee near the beginning of the book. I happen to like the effect; some other readers might not.

Well-worth it as an addition to your Civil War bookshelf if purchased at amazon's nice bargain price, and as another reviewer said, would blend in well if you have artifacts of the battle, as I do. Still, I wouldn't pay the full or the paperback price.

Heart of Spain: Robert Capa's Photographs of the Spanish Civil War

Average customer rating:

This book is exceptional
Unbelievably Potent Photographs of Spain's Civil War
Thank God the communists lost in Spain
To read this book is to see the heart of Robert Capa
An Essential Book for any serious collector

Heart of Spain: Robert Capa's Photographs of the Spanish Civil War

Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1931788022
Release Date: 2005-06-15

Book Description

Considered by many to be the greatest war photographer, Robert Capa first gained recognition for images he made during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This volume is the first to be devoted entirely to these photographs.

In 1936, the rebellion of monarchists and fascists led by General Franco, in alliance with Hitler and Mussolini, mobilized anti-fascists all over the world, among them Robert Capa. During the entire period of the civil war, Capa traveled throughout the Loyalist-held areas of Spain, photographing battles, cities under siege, and the chaos of a modern nation at war with itself.

One series of images documents the heroic Loyalist defense of Madrid; another the mass exodus of Catalonians from Barcelona to the French border. His iconic photograph of a Loyalist militiaman who has just been shot shocked the world with its brutal immediacy. Capa's pictures not only illuminated the strength and courage of the soldiers who carried on against overwhelming odds but also galvanized compassion for the innocent and injured. John Steinbeck praised Capa for his ability to "show the horror of a whole people in the face of a child."

Customer Reviews:

This book is exceptional.......2007-01-11

Is a very interesting book, whith "beautifull" images in a very good print.

Unbelievably Potent Photographs of Spain's Civil War.......2001-06-12

Capa is considered one of the fathers of modern combat photography. These photographs clearly verify that fact. The modern combat photographers that have come after were all aware of Capa's work and if they didn't overtly copy his style, they certainly used it as a foundation. The potency of these photographs is not so much the action they sometimes capture, but in the faces set in the multitude of back drops of war. The viciousness and tragedy of this conflict hotly radiate out of some of these photographs. Others coolly reflect despair and fear. The book is at the same time a statement about war and a valuable historical document.

Thank God the communists lost in Spain.......2000-11-19

This collection of photos are important for the sake of history but must be evaluated in the proper context: Capa and the Loyalists sought to establish a Stalinist state in Spain, not a "democracy". The creation of a Stalinist state would have brought terror, murder, etc. upon the Spanish people and would have destroyed the country. I believe that the record of history (and my own personal experience as a Spaniard) has proven that the Nationalist victory was the best thing that could have happened to Spain at the time. Just look at the atrocities (tens of millions of dead, terror, etc) the Communists committed in Russia, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, and on and on and on; who in their right mind would wish that on anyone? Franco punished some of the loyalists but the overwhelming majority were welcomed back into society. Now that the Soviet Union has fallen and that ridiculous "philosophy" of "communism" has been proven to be one of the worst disasters visited upon mankind those who tried to force that evil upon Spain during the Civil War should hang their heads in shame. Viva Espana!

To read this book is to see the heart of Robert Capa.......1999-11-10

This book shows the heart of the Spainish people as they fought for their freedom. One could ask, "What Price Freedom?" Robert Capa lost his one true love when Gerda Taro was killed. To read through this book, to look at the pictures, is to look into the heart of Robert Capa.

Bob we all miss you.

An Essential Book for any serious collector.......1999-08-16

This is one of the best and most moving combat photo volumnes I have seen. Capa is a genius artist with the camera, compassionate toward humanity and as courageous as any soldier on the field of battle. All these three qualities jump at you with the turn of every page. There is no saftey of the Zoom lens here. The comments from the reviewer of the DC are absurd. This book is about humanity at war. Whether or not the subject matter happens to be from one army or another is least of the concerns. I have seen many fine photos of the German Army in combat and have never viewed them as propaganda nor do I feel any sympathy for their objectives. It is about the essence of capturing a man in his most important minute of his life.

In the Wake of Battle: The Civil War Images of Mathew Brady

Average customer rating:

A Nice Pictorial History of the War.
A 'Must Have' book for every Civil War library

In the Wake of Battle: The Civil War Images of Mathew Brady
George Sullivan , and Mathew B. Brady
Manufacturer: Prestel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mr. Lincoln's Camera Man: Mathew B. Brady
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ASIN: 3791329294

Book Description

More than 350 photographs by Mathew Brady and his corps of cameramen, many of them never seen before, make this the most comprehensive collection of Civil War images ever published.

Mathew Brady is arguably the most widely hailed documentarian of America's bloodiest conflict: the Civil War. He and his cameramen created an indelible record of bravery, suffering, and sacrifice. Exhibitions of Brady's photographs helped to introduce Americans to the brutal realities of war, and he was a pioneer in the field of photojournalism by providing his battlefield scenes and portrait photographs to Harper's and other weekly publications of the time for use as woodcuts.

Arranged by battle site and event, each of which is introduced by a brief explanatory essay, the volume offers carefully researched archival information about each image and its photographer. Photographs by Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, and James Gibson are among those included in this thoroughly documented collection.

Caption material includes Library of Congress digital order numbers; order numbers are also given for images from the National Archives. This information helps to make the volume a valuable resource for anyone interested in Civil War history or nineteenth-century photography.

Customer Reviews:

A Nice Pictorial History of the War........2005-04-02

Mathew Brady was called Lincoln's Camera Man, but this photo album is filled with photos from a battery of photographers. It is a nice history in pictures of that time, whoever took them.

These pictures show the devastation of the War. For some reason, though, more of them show dead Confederates. It depicts the war clearly showing some of the multitude killed at Antietam, Gettysburg, the ruins at Harper's Ferry (all places I took my sons to explore a while back). Lincoln is shown at Antietam after the 'bloodiest battle of the Civil War' in October, 1862. Gettysburg, where too many from the South died, occurred in July, 1863.

The pontoon bridges were unusual and clever. The horse and carriages and wagon trains showed how drastically things have changed. Seeing a real ironclad was interesting.

This is a short course in the Civil War for those who want to know what happened; they can see the aspects from a Northerner point of view, as they ravished the South and left parts of it looking like bombed out London or Germany.

A 'Must Have' book for every Civil War library.......2004-05-14

What an valuable tome, Surley one of the most impressive collections of Civil War images ever collected. The introductions to the twenty-one sections are very helpful for appreciating the 400+ haunting Brady photos. I especially enjoyed the Federal Navy section, with photos I had never seen before, although I've read and edited several publications about the Civil War. Included also is a very practical guide to acquiring copies of the photos. In has been ten years since the prolific George Sullivan presented his biography of Mathew Brady. It was worth the wait as we have here an award-winning work that should be in teh history section of every private and public library. Not one of the 450 pages is disappointing.

The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered

Average customer rating:

It captured the peoples dreams and hopes for equality.

The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered
Roland L. Freeman
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

The Mule Train, about 150 people in twenty mule-drawn wagons from Marks, Mississippi, was determined to make the nation aware of the plight of America's poor. The Mule Train is commemorated in this collection of photographs by Roland Freeman and others accompanied by excerpts from local and national newspapers.

Customer Reviews:

It captured the peoples dreams and hopes for equality........1998-10-28

I was impressed at the magnificent way that this book brought to light the struggle and dreams of the Mule Train participants. Their beleifs that what was transpiring would make a difference, not just for them, but for all of America. The committment of Mr. Willie Bolden, tasked with the responsibility to see that all went well. His determination and others that dispite several roadblocks insured all travelers were taken care of. The reporting by Jean Pond-Smith showed the realness of this movement without being bias or prejudicial. Her capture of the spirit of the travelers were enligntening and heartwrenching. This book brought home to me many memories that I had long ago moved to the back of mind. That I, along with with mother and three of my sisters were a part of this moment in history.

Assignment: Shanghai: Photographs on the Eve of Revolution (Series in Contemporary Photography, 2)

Average customer rating:

valuable images of a bygone era

Assignment: Shanghai: Photographs on the Eve of Revolution (Series in Contemporary Photography, 2)

Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Lost China: The Photographs of Leone Nani
Red-Color News Soldier
Shanghai Girl Gets All Dressed Up
Shanghai : The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City 1842-1949
Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century

ASIN: 0520239903

Book Description

Shipping out to China in December 1947 with three ten-year-old German cameras and a plum assignment from Life magazine, Jack Birns was fulfilling a boyhood dream. The reality was something else: refugees and prostitutes, soldiers and beggars, street executions and urban protests photographed in difficult and often dangerous circumstances amidst the poverty, corruption, and chaos of an expanding civil war. By then the ruling Nationalist Party had been battling the Communist threat for more than two decades, and Birns focused his camera on the human drama unfolding as war pressed ever closer to the country's financial, cultural, and commercial capital. His effort to show China's misery up close ran afoul of Time-Life publisher Henry R. Luce's fervent anti-communism, and for half a century many of these historic photographs lay unpublished in Time-Life's archives. Printed here for the first time, they offer a graphic vision of a great city, Shanghai, poised on the precipice of political revolution.
Seen through the lens of hindsight, Birns's photographs give us a sense not only of what China was like more than fifty years ago, but also of why the warfare, weariness, and desperation of the time proved such fertile soil for communist revolution. Today these everyday scenes of ordinary people--pedicab drivers, street vendors, bar girls, police, politicians, prisoners--tell a story of national resilience and dignity in the midst of enveloping poverty, repression, and fear. Birns's stark black and white photographs capture the dramatic end of an era, but they also look forward, letting us glimpse how Shanghai's past prefigures the city's commercial and cultural revival in the 1990s.

Customer Reviews:

valuable images of a bygone era.......2007-08-31

While very disturbing, to say the least, the pictures in this book are a necessary part of a history that people would just a soon forget. The privileged life for a few in Shanghai, contrasted with the starving masses eking out a living in their midst. Draconic measures, executions and riots, an emigre community divorced from the reality of life in China. In seeing these pictures you see the beginning of the end of a regime--to be substituted by another of unknown pedigree. But the heartening thing is that through the pain and suffering you do not see people giving up. Look at these pictures and get a shot of adrenaline!!

The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History of Civil War Photography

Average customer rating:

Much More Than a Coffee-Table Book!
On the Battle Line with Civil War Photographers

The Blue and Gray in Black and White: A History of Civil War Photography
Bob Zeller
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg
Team of Rivals

ASIN: 0275982432

Book Description

The first complete narrative history of Civil War photography, this work brings together the remarkable experiences of M.B. Brady, Alexander Gardner, George S. Cook, and other photographers, many of whom had careers stretching back more than two decades to the dawn of American photography in 1839. Step by step throughout the war, American photographers, North and South, advanced their craft to new heights, acting independently, but seemingly as if part of one great team, moved to act by "a spirit in their feet." With their wet plate cameras, they produced many firsts, including the first combat action photographs, the first photo essays of news events as they happened, and the first photos deemed so controversial that they were censored by the federal government. Zeller also examines the impact of photography on average Americans. The American Civil War was extensively photographed, not only to preserve history, but because the leading American photographers realized that they could make a profit by mass marketing the images. Complete with more than 150 illustrations, including previously unpublished Civil War images, as well as all known Civil War battle action photos, this work fills a huge gap in the history of America's greatest conflict. It tells the stories of the men who created the images that students of history know so well, men whose personal legacies became confused by myths and misinformation, were shrouded in obscurity, or have simply not been documented--until now.

Customer Reviews:

Much More Than a Coffee-Table Book!.......2006-03-20

I thought this book might just be a nice coffee-table book with some good Civil War photos, but it is so much more. While true, the book is filled with great photos, many I had never seen before, THE BLUE AND GRAY IN BLACK AND WHITE: A HISTORY OF CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHY, by Bob Zeller, is just what the title implies; a photo and written history of Civil War photography.

Zeller, founder and president of the Center of Civil War Photography, has dauntingly researched his subject, and it shows in this book. Of course, Zeller includes the most notable of Civil War photographers, such as Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner, whose over 1000 images of the war include the first images of war at Antietam and his photos of Gettysburg; however, much of the book chronicles the career of southern photographer, George Smith Cook.

The information on Cook is really a short biography within the pages of the larger work. Although Cook, who was present at Charleston, apparently and sadly missed the opportunity to chronicle the initial engagement with images, many of Cook's accomplishments are highlighted, such as the first photos of prisoners of war taken at Castle Pinkney, his photos of Major Anderson and the destruction at Fort Sumter as well as the ironclads in action.

Not being a photographer, there is a good bit of information here that was foreign to me as far as the early processes of photography. I am sure photographers would gain fruitful knowledge from such information and have a much deeper appreciation for this work, as Zeller's research was obviously painstaking and meticulous.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

On the Battle Line with Civil War Photographers.......2005-11-17

The Blue and Gray in Black and White A History of Civil War Photography by Civil War author Bob Zeller has added an exciting new dimension to the history of Civil War photography that will appeal to a broad spectrum of American historians, Civil War enthusiasts, and those who study photography as an art form. With newly discovered photographs and primary sources, Bob Zeller's study has captured the Civil War photographer on the edge and sometimes in the midst of the battlefield pointing his wet plate camera into the thick of battle smoke across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, on the sandy beach of Morris Island at Charleston's harbor as the huge Union ironclad, New Ironsides bombarded Confederate forts, and in the shivering cold of Nashville as a General Hood's army met its destruction.
Bob Zeller, author of his high successful The Civil War in Depth Volumes One and Two and president of The Center for Civil War Photography, "a non-profit organization dedicated to the study, presentation, and preservation of Civil War photography" has "walked the walk" in his thorough and exhaustive research of Civil War photographs. He has traveled the breadth of the country visiting private and public photographic and documentary collections in museums, historical societies, personal interviews, and the new digital collection at the Library of Congress. As a reader, I studied his thoroughly academic note section at the back of his study with great satisfaction.
The Blue and Gray in Black and White is the key primer how Civil War photographers such as Captain Andrew J Russell, the Union army's only photographer, Timothy O'Sullivan, George Barnard, and southern photographers George S Cook and J.D. Edwards visually captured on delicate wet plates the most bloody war in our Nation's history. The author weaves an engrossing story of photography as an art form and has also chronciled the industry of photography from its beginnings in late 1839 to the eve of war in 1860. In those twenty one years, we read the personal encounters of "daguerreian artist," Platt Babbitt who captured the "doomed" Joseph Avery clinging to life on a shifting log just above the American Falls on the Niagara River, Roger Fenton who traveled to the Crimea outside the Russian city of Sebastopol as he may have photographed the wisps of artillery smoke from Allied siege guns, and how the Cooper Union photograph of Lincoln had a tremendous national impact.
Bob Zellers story of Civil War Photographers as they applied their craft on the war torn American landscape has set the standard to study the entire history of Civil War photography.
Civil War photographs will no longer be incidental adornments to the pages of history texts. Publishers will have to ensure that historians have carefully dated and researched their photographic views. The author, moreover, carefully researched newly discovered photographs to illustrate the humorous side of the war. We the readers see General George B McClellan's staff drinking about the time President Abraham Lincoln visited the soon to be fired McClellan in October, 1862. In the chapter, Embedded With The Troops, we witness Union soldiers in a tree looking across the Rappahannock River as the smoke of battle rises behind the captured town of Fredericksburg.
The story of Civil War photography is not complete without tracing the perilous journey of the photographs "negatives" through nearly 80 years of American history as well as giving us a personal sense of poignancy to the life changing experiences major personalities of photograhic history have had.
In his first chapter, Bob Zeller tells us how a photographic exhibit in 1840 dramatically changed Edward Anthony's life and how his fascination and love for photography would build the largest photographic supply company in the United States. Bob Zeller completed the circle of life changing experiences how a young boy of nine in 1955, William A.Frassanito, read a Life Magazine article on the Civil War and the article's photograhs ignited all his youthful energies into the study of the photographs of the Civil War. Twenty years later, Frassanito, would write Gettysburg: A Journey in Time that established the academic standard for investigating Civil War photographs as documents of history. The author's tale is not complete until the reader has the opportunity to note the important efforts being made to preserve the images by the digitizing project of the Library of Congress.
It is a great book and I highly recommend it.
John R Kelley
Photographic Historian
Poughkeepsie, NY

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