American History in 15 Photographs
1865 to the 21st century
- Textbook
American History in 15 Photographs
1865 to the 21st century
- Textbook
Available for purchase via Bloomsbury etextbooks on publication date
Description
Photographs are more than just illustrations of a moment in time, they offer a powerful way to interpret and understand the past like no other historical source can. U.S. History in 15 Photographs introduces this power through 15 iconic and lesser-known photographs representing key eras in American History. Taking the reader from Reconstruction and Westward Expansion, to the Roaring Twenties and the World Wars, right up to Modern American Culture, it offers a refreshing, visual account of American history.
This volume reorients photography as a major source for understanding the past, expanding not only the stories that we tell, but the way we tell them. Teaching students how to understand, contextualize, and interpret historic photography, U.S. History in 15 Photographs centers diverse stories about the American experience by exploring topics around race, class, gender, disability, the environment, and social justice.
The scholars who contributed to this volume show that photographs are more just illustrations from the past, but foundational sources with surprising revelations about the past.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1, Veiled History: Confederate Memorialization and the Politics of Race and Place after Emancipation, Julian Hayter
Chapter 2, Regarding Sovereign History as Incomplete: The Cherokee Outlet Land Opening Photographs, Laura Wexler
Chapter 3, Owned to Landowner: Black Homesteaders in the West
Jacob K. Friefeld
Chapter 4, Illuminating the Kodak Girl: Style and Marketing in the Gilded Age, Shannon Perich
Chapter 5, Native American Women & the Politics of Portraiture at the Turn of the 20th Century, Cathleen Cahill
Chapter 6, The Interwar Period (1918-1939): Internationalism in the Pacific, Courtney Sato
Chapter 7, Complicating the Legacy of Dorothea Lange's Photography, Linda Gordon
Chapter 8, Framing a Fractured System: The Bracero Program through Leonard Nadel's Lens, Mireya Loza
Chapter 9, Race and the Space Race: Cold War Computing at NASA, Nabeel Siddiqui & Thomas Haigh
Chapter 10, Tear Down, Rise Up: Redevelopment and Revolts in American Cities, Ann Pfau, David Hochfelder, & Stacy Sewell
Chapter 11, They Don't Own Us: Harlan County, the Brookside Coal Strike, and the Forgotten History of the Working Class, Grace Hale
Chapter 12, “Very Strong Women You Don't Mess With”: The Section 504 Disability Rights Protest, Scot Danforth
Chapter 13, Documerica: Picturing Pollution in the 1970s, Lauren Tilton & Mia Lazar
Chapter 14, The Enola Gay and the Culture Wars, Rebecca S. Wingo
Chapter 15, Selfie as Self-Love: Coyote Park's Decolonizing of Photography, Ace Lehner
Product details
| Published | Jan 08 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 336 |
| ISBN | 9781350463400 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Series | History in 15 |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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