The Eye of War: Words and Photographs from the Front Line

Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2003. First edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good in very good dust jacket. Black mark at bar code at back of DJ. Jackson, Sarah (Photo Editor), and Merullo, Annabe. 287, [1] p. Illustrations (some in color). Index. Introduction by John Keegan. From the publisher: "From the Crimean War and American Civil War through the two World Wars, from Vietnam and the Gulf War to the Balkans and Afghanistan, photographers have been drawn to the battlefront. The best war photography bares war's essence by distilling the chaos of combat into indelible visual icons. This book selects 200 of the most powerful war photographs, together with poignant testaments by soldiers and battlefield witnesses, to make an unforgettable tableau. Among these arresting images are Mathew Brady's Civil War pictures from Gettysburg; those taken from the Cape to Cairo during the colonial 'Scramble for Africa'; those from the Armageddon of the First World War; the World War II photos of Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, and Yevgeni Khaldei; and those of Don McCullin and Larry Burrows from Vietnam. The brute strength of military hardware is contrasted with the pathetic vulnerability of the human body, as artillery, tanks, planes, and aircraft carriers are set against infantry. Heartstopping images of the trenches in WWI, the empty steppes of Russia during WWII, and the street fighting and civilian casualties in Afghanistan testify to the skill of the photographers. "