Synopses & Reviews
An exceptional photographic history of the changing face of war through 150 years. From the Crimean War and American Civil War through the two World Wars, from Vietnam and the Gulf War to the Balkans and Afghanistan, photographers have been drawn to the battlefront. The best war photography bares war's essence by distilling the chaos of combat into indelible visual icons. This book selects 200 of the most powerful war photographs, together with poignant testaments by soldiers and battlefield witnesses, to make an unforgettable tableau. Among these arresting images are Mathew Brady's Civil War pictures from Gettysburg; those taken from the Cape to Cairo during the colonial "Scramble for Africa"; those from the armageddon of the First World War; the World War II photos of Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, and Yevgeni Khaldei; and those of Don McCullin and Larry Burrows from Vietnam. The brute strength of military hardware is contrasted with the pathetic vulnerability of the human body, as artillery, tanks, planes, and aircraft carriers are set against infantry. Heartstopping images of the trenches in WWI, the empty steppes of Russia during WWII, the street fighting in Afghanistan, and the desert combat in Iraq testify to the skill of the photographers.