A History of Visual Culture: Western Civilization from the 18th to the 21st Century [Hardcover]

A History of Visual Cultureis a history of ideas. The recent explosion of interest in visual culture suggests the phenomenon is very recent. But visual culture has a history. Knowledge began to be systematically grounded in observation and display from the Enlightenment. Since then, from the age of industrialisation and colonialism to today's globalised world, visual culture has continued to shape our ways of thinking and of interpreting the world.

Carefully structured to cover a wide history and geography,A History of Visual Cultureis divided into themed sections - Revolt and Revolution; Science and Empiricism; Gaze and Spectacle; Acquisition, Display, and Desire; Conquest, Colonialism, and Globalization; Image and Reality; Media and Visual Technologies. Each section presents a carefully selected range of case studies from across the last 250 years, designed to illustrate how all kinds of visual media have shaped our technology, aesthetics, politics and culture.

Jane Krommis Professor of Art History at Purchase College, State University of New York and author ofThe Art of Frenzy: Public Madness in the Visual Culture of Europe, 1500-1850.

Susan Benforado Bakewellis an independent curator and scholar, and has taught at the University of Texas, Arlington and Southern Methodist University. She is co-editor of Voices in New Mexico Art.

PART ONE: REVOLT AND REVOLUTION * 1. The Politics of Visibility in Revolutionary France; Helen Weston, University College, London * 2. 19th c. Revolutions and Strategies of Visual Persuasion; Richard Taws, McGill University * 3. Socialist Movements and the Development of the Political Poster; Elizabeth Guffey, Purchase ColsN