No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy

It is fascinating to consider how and why images have become "iconic" in our culture. Bob Hariman and John Lucaties expertly analyze this phenomenon, and their commentary throughout this text (and their blog by the same name) was wonderful.

I bought this book for my senior seminar class and the book is so good that I decided to keep it. Thanks for the great purchase.

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This is an important book. No Caption Needed speaks with eloquence to a topic of tremendous significance for contemporary society and the state of democratic public culture. It is a deeply interesting study relevant to academic and general audiences alike. Part history lesson and part analysis of where we are and where we might head, this book examines what democracy means in a culture oriented to the visual. It's one of those gems that makes the reader rethink the world by pointing out something important right under one's nose. Hariman and Lucaites examine iconic photographs, those images we see again and again and again in public life, and deftly reveal how they contribute to the rhythm of that life. In a series of chapters, they examine haunting and celebratory images that mark American history: the Times Square kiss, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima and at Ground Zero, the Migrant Mother of the Great Depression, the Kent State massacre, the accidental napalm of the Vietnam War, the defiant man in Tiananmen Square, the Hindenburg and Challenger explosions. In addition to the book, Hariman and Lucaites also succeed in what is often a remarkably difficult task: hosting a relevant, engaging, and inviting blog, an arena for discussion and intelligent debate with wit and precision: <A HREF="[...]">No Caption Needed</A> The review below has admirably captured the content of each chapter, so I will only mention its wide span of audiences. A critical scholarly book, No Caption Needed is a significant contribution to the burgeoning study of visual rhetoric, and should be mandatory reading for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in communication programs. It also addresses media and cultural studies, and would find a welcome place on the syllabi of journalism, anthropology, sociology, history, political science, art history, performance studies, education, and popular culture courses. This book--and the blog--should also not be missed by the political strategist, policy wonk, and political writer of any persuasion. It should also not be missed by the general reader. Hariman and Lucaites offer a corrective to the slew of cheap advice pouring out these days on how to seize control of the public sphere. They remind us about something much more important: the need to question how democracy is performed, and how its images inspire citizens to action--whether to prepare for war, to dissent, or even just to buy things. All of us, regardless of political affiliation, would find it rewarding to pause and consider the deep questions this book raises about the power of the image and the future of liberal democracy.

The book arrived the day after ordering. It is in perfect condition, as you would expect, with straight page and that lovely new book smell. It is full of information and should be very useful for my daughters photography course.