Full Description
Using the press coverage of the Franco-Prussian war as a starting point, Michèle Martin's Images at War examines nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals published in France, Germany, England, and Canada (with references also to Italy and the United States), and argues that periodicals during this period worked to reinforce particular national identities.
Images in periodicals played an essential role in how the concept of nationalism was expressed and reproduced, usually by pitting cultures and countries against one another. These illustrated periodicals helped to shape nations where nations had not previously existed - such as with Germany, Italy, and Canada, which were only just coming into their own as states. In war, Martin observes, these documents also represented a non-verbal method of communicating emotionally trying, politically challenging, and oftentimes contradictory information to the public, literate and non-literate alike.
The history of nineteenth-century illustrated papers underscores their legitimacy as a form of journalism. They were more than a commodity produced for profit; they offered serious reflection and commentary on the times designed by editors to have specific effects on the readers. Images at War is a much-needed study of this early news medium and its part in the construction of nationalism in the midst of war.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Eyes of the Readers
The Illustrated Press in Its Sociopolitical Context
The Transformation of the Nineteenth-Century Press
The Franco-Prussian War in Context
Making Choices
The Production of Illustrations in Content
The Politics of Visual Representation
Producing Illustrated Newspapers
Contextualizing Production of Illustrations
Making History
Illustrating War
Technical Means and the Discrepancy of Circulationbetween Images and Texts
Making Stories?
Feeding Memories
Choosing What to Remember
The Illustrated Periodicals Analyse the War
A Post-Mortem of Some Participants
Post-War Effects
Makers of National Memories
Preparing for War Coverage
Taking Positions
Breaking the News: A Franco-Prussian War Is On!
Ruptures
Food for Thought
Managing the Unexpected, Boosting National Feelings
Political Ruptures
Periodical Ruptures
Front and Back Pages
Elements of Comparison
Conclusion: Constructing Memories
Ways of Seeing the War
Images versus Texts
Mediated Content
Launching a Process of Memorization
Notes
Illustration Credits
Index
