"Seeing through Race" is a boldly original reinterpretation of the iconic photographs of the black civil rights struggle. Martin A. Berger's provocative and groundbreaking study shows how the very pictures credited with arousing white sympathy, and thereby paving the way for civil rights legislation, actually limited the scope of racial reform in the 1960s. Berger analyzes many of these famous images - dogs and fire hoses turned against peaceful black marchers in Birmingham, tear gas and clubs wielded against voting-rights marchers in Selma - and argues that because white sympathy was dependent on photographs of powerless blacks, these unforgettable pictures undermined efforts to enact - or even imagine - reforms that threatened to upend the racial balance of power.

About the Author
Martin A. Berger is Professor and Director of the Visual Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of Man Made: Thomas Eakins and the Construction of Gilded Age Manhood and Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture, both from UC Press. David J. Garrow is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Reviews
"Brilliant, provocative study of photographs of the US civil rights movement ... A first-rate book!" Choice "Fascinating... Berger's historical reconstruction is convincing." -- Ariella Azoulay Burrelles Luce "A comprehensive study of the language in which editors, reporters, and photographers shaped and demarcated the period's field of vision." -- Ariella Azoulay, Tel Aviv University CAA Reviews



Book Information
ISBN 9780520268647
Author Martin A. Berger
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 590g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 178mm * 18mm