| Abstract: | Abstract This study of the use of photographs during the Paris Commune, and continuing through the periods of Bonapartism, Boulangism, Royalism, and the Dreyfus Affair, is excellent in every way but two, and neither shortcoming is the fault of the author. First, the price is unaccountably high considering that, secondly, the reproduction quality is so poor. Nevertheless, in this scholarly and lively text, students of photo history will find a thorough, well-documented, and very thoughtful examination of the use of photographs, and especially captioned photos, primarily by the various opponents to the Third Republic. This is not so much a discussion of important French photographers as an attempt to identify and interpret those often anonymous images that enjoyed national circulation from 1871–1914, and to analyse their use as propaganda. To do this, the author carefully traces their political and sociological context, examines prevailing notions about the nature of photographs, and comments about the effectiveness of various photographic propaganda campaigns (although he concedes that it is difficult to determine their absolute effect on 19th-century viewers). |
