Eyewitnessing evaluates the worth of images as historical evidence, examining religious, political, advertising and commodified images. Peter Burke challenges the conventional view that images represent specific historical meanings.
Eyewitnessing evaluates the worth of images as historical evidence, examining religious, political, advertising and commodified images. Peter Burke challenges the conventional view that images represent specific historical meanings.
Evaluates the place of images among other kinds of historical evidence. By reviewing the many varieties of images by region, period and medium, and looking at the pragmatic uses of images (e.g. the Bayeux Tapestry, and engraving of a printing press, a reconstruction of a building), Peter Burke sheds light on our assumption that these practical uses are 'reflections' of specific historical meanings and influences.
“Well-informed and fair-minded, and it prompts one to ponder”
Provides us with a compendium ... which continues the long process of restoring the balance between written documentation and optical representation as carriers of historical information ... a thoroughly engrossing explication of how fine art, graphics, photographs, film and other media can be used to make sense of lives lived out in other times Tate Magazine -- Michael Baxandall English Historical Review
Peter Burke is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cambridge. His recent books include The European Renaissance: Centres and Peripheries (1998) and A Social History of Knowledge from Gutenberg to Diderot (2000).
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