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My Brother's Face: Portraits of the Civil War in Photographs, Diaries, and Letters
The Civil War. Historians call it the first modern war. Men and boys marched by the thousands and tens of thousands into a conflict that would change the way wars were fought forever. Yet the vast majority of the combatants were neither professional soldiers, nor hired mercenaries. They were citizens - doctors, lawyers, farmers, clerks, and students - who found themselves in an unprecedented kind of combat, brother fighting brother, with the terrible new weapons of the Industrial Age.
If the American Civil War was the first modern war, it was also the first war to be documented extensively with photographs. The old daguerrotype, ambro-type, and tintype processes, awkward and demanding though they were, produced remarkably sharp, beautifully modeled images that reach across the decades with undiminished emotional impact. My Brother's Face is a gallery of eighty unforgettable portraits, each introduced by an illuminating historical commentary and accompanied by passages from revealing letters, diaries, or other firsthand accounts expressing the thoughts and feelings of men, women, and boys far from home and in desperate conflict.
An intimate view of four terrible years that forged our nation, My Brother's Face depicts the Civil War as seen through the eyes of both the famous and the unknown. Here are the faces of those who fought, those who died, and those who healed, all captured in startling, personal images.
If the American Civil War was the first modern war, it was also the first war to be documented extensively with photographs. The old daguerrotype, ambro-type, and tintype processes, awkward and demanding though they were, produced remarkably sharp, beautifully modeled images that reach across the decades with undiminished emotional impact. My Brother's Face is a gallery of eighty unforgettable portraits, each introduced by an illuminating historical commentary and accompanied by passages from revealing letters, diaries, or other firsthand accounts expressing the thoughts and feelings of men, women, and boys far from home and in desperate conflict.
An intimate view of four terrible years that forged our nation, My Brother's Face depicts the Civil War as seen through the eyes of both the famous and the unknown. Here are the faces of those who fought, those who died, and those who healed, all captured in startling, personal images.
160 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 21, 2016
Published in 1993 by Chronicle Books
Designed to be a "coffee table book" rather than a thorough re-telling of the war, this history of the American Civil War is quite enjoyable. The strength of the book is immediately obvious - the gorgeous, large photographs of soldiers, sailors, spies and other participants in the events of the Civil War.
I find that as I get older I catch myself looking at the faces of these people and wondering what life was like for them. Some of them look stiff and fake, but some, including a lot in this collection, imbue a sense of vitality, a sense that these were living, breathing people. Sometimes it is a smirk, or perhaps a look of unease.
I simply love a picture that is used in this book of the 4th U.S. Colored Troops on p. 121. These men all have a look of confidence, determination and even distrust that speaks to us even more than 150 years later and exemplifies what a well-chosen picture can tell the reader that even a well-written text cannot...
Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2016/...
Designed to be a "coffee table book" rather than a thorough re-telling of the war, this history of the American Civil War is quite enjoyable. The strength of the book is immediately obvious - the gorgeous, large photographs of soldiers, sailors, spies and other participants in the events of the Civil War.
I find that as I get older I catch myself looking at the faces of these people and wondering what life was like for them. Some of them look stiff and fake, but some, including a lot in this collection, imbue a sense of vitality, a sense that these were living, breathing people. Sometimes it is a smirk, or perhaps a look of unease.
I simply love a picture that is used in this book of the 4th U.S. Colored Troops on p. 121. These men all have a look of confidence, determination and even distrust that speaks to us even more than 150 years later and exemplifies what a well-chosen picture can tell the reader that even a well-written text cannot...
Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2016/...
Displaying 1 of 1 review