What happened in Kirven; Texas; in May 1922; has been forgotten by the outside world. It was a co-worker's whispered words; "Kirven is where they burned the [Negroes];" that set Monte Akers to work at discovering the true story behind a young white woman's brutal murder and the burning alive of three black men who were almost certainly innocent of it. This was followed by a month-long reign of terror as white men killed blacks while local authorities concealed the real identity of the white probable murderers and allowed them to go free. Writing nonfiction with the skill of a novelist; Akers paints a vivid portrait of a community desolated by race hatred and its own refusal to face hard truths. He sets this tragedy within the story of a region prospering from an oil boom but plagued by lawlessness; and traces the lynching's repercussions down the decades to the present day. What can the uncovering of yet another travesty do to improve race relations in light of the recent lynching in Jasper; Texas? In the opinion of Akers; "This story is now complete; but its messages can never be. The insanity of racial hatred; or hatred of any kind; the necessity of equal protection and due process of law; the danger of mob mentality; and the unforeseen consequences of deception and cover-up all hang from this tale like fruit ripe for the picking.
#1008180 in Books 2005-10-30Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 11.02 x .63 x 8.50l; 2.31 #File Name: 0275982432248 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Outstanding and worth the steep price.By Charles T. JoyceMuch more than a coffee table book of the usual Civil War photos. An indepth chronicle of the "business" of wartime photography. Immensely enjoyable.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Truth behind the myth that Brady took all the Civil War photographsBy Antonius TioAlthough expensive; this is the only book which will cover the content subject. It is not simply a rehash of the thousands of photographs in the Library of Congress;but a behind the scenes explanation of how the camera went to war in 1861. One section shows how journalism photography came into being. Photography of any sort was only about 40 years old in 1861.Zeller will tell you how the wet plate camera became the cumbersome but logical camera to document the war. You will learn that many studios operated in both North and South. Few people today ralize that photographs were sold and collected extensively. Other than portraits to display and visiting cards to exchange; the popular form of photography was the stereo view card. Many war photographs were taken in that format to be sold.Zeller explains the story behind the only combat shot known; taken by Confederate photographer George S. Cook of Union ships bombarding shore installations. "Live action" shots were not ordinarily possible because of slow shutter speeds. O'Sullivan's three shot sequence of Grant and his officers conferring is a historical masterpiece.Photographs of the dead at Antietam and Gettysburg were graphic and possible. By the time a battle started a team out of Washington or other location had to travel where the action was. The dead and destruction were usually all that remained except for the scenery. The Brady teams "embedded" with McClellan's invasion forces were closer to action than other photographers had been; and their style began to show it.The Confederate photographer A.J.Riddle made a comprehensive record of Andersonville Prison. Photography was also used as propaganda when photographs recorded the physical condition of the exchanged prisoners who were in a state like the concentration camp inmates at the end of WW II. Naturally; the relatively healthy individuals were not worth photographing.The development of photojournalism discusses coverage of the Lincoln assassination; the funeral; and the exection of the conspirators. Alexander Gardner's coverage included "mug" shots of conspirators; which were the beginning of that technique. In addition; he photographed the autopsies of Henry Wirz and John Wilkes Booth.Modern scholarly analysis is also discussed. For; example; Frassinito's work in finding the actual scenes of battlefield photographs at Atietam and Gettysburg.Finally; Zeller outlines the near loss and final preservation of the large negative collections after the war when they were of little interest.Do not look here for the best and most famous photographs. Some will be here; but in the photographs reproduced Zeller is showing the story and impact of photography.And you will learn about the Anthony company and individuals whose names have been exlipsed because "Brady took the Civil War photographs."After you know this information; seek out the less enlightened monster collections of photographs elsewhere.18 of 18 people found the following review helpful. On the Battle Line with Civil War PhotographersBy John Kelley Photographic HistorianThe Blue and Gray in Black and White A History of Civil War Photography by Civil War author Bob Zeller has added an exciting new dimension to the history of Civil War photography that will appeal to a broad spectrum of American historians; Civil War enthusiasts; and those who study photography as an art form. With newly discovered photographs and primary sources; Bob Zeller's study has captured the Civil War photographer on the edge and sometimes in the midst of the battlefield pointing his wet plate camera into the thick of battle smoke across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg; on the sandy beach of Morris Island at Charleston's harbor as the huge Union ironclad; New Ironsides bombarded Confederate forts; and in the shivering cold of Nashville as a General Hood's army met its destruction.Bob Zeller; author of his high successful The Civil War in Depth Volumes One and Two and president of The Center for Civil War Photography; "a non-profit organization dedicated to the study; presentation; and preservation of Civil War photography" has "walked the walk" in his thorough and exhaustive research of Civil War photographs. He has traveled the breadth of the country visiting private and public photographic and documentary collections in museums; historical societies; personal interviews; and the new digital collection at the Library of Congress. As a reader; I studied his thoroughly academic note section at the back of his study with great satisfaction.The Blue and Gray in Black and White is the key primer how Civil War photographers such as Captain Andrew J Russell; the Union army's only photographer; Timothy O'Sullivan; George Barnard; and southern photographers George S Cook and J.D. Edwards visually captured on delicate wet plates the most bloody war in our Nation's history. The author weaves an engrossing story of photography as an art form and has also chronciled the industry of photography from its beginnings in late 1839 to the eve of war in 1860. In those twenty one years; we read the personal encounters of "daguerreian artist;" Platt Babbitt who captured the "doomed" Joseph Avery clinging to life on a shifting log just above the American Falls on the Niagara River; Roger Fenton who traveled to the Crimea outside the Russian city of Sebastopol as he may have photographed the wisps of artillery smoke from Allied siege guns; and how the Cooper Union photograph of Lincoln had a tremendous national impact.Bob Zellers story of Civil War Photographers as they applied their craft on the war torn American landscape has set the standard to study the entire history of Civil War photography.Civil War photographs will no longer be incidental adornments to the pages of history texts. Publishers will have to ensure that historians have carefully dated and researched their photographic views. The author; moreover; carefully researched newly discovered photographs to illustrate the humorous side of the war. We the readers see General George B McClellan's staff drinking about the time President Abraham Lincoln visited the soon to be fired McClellan in October; 1862. In the chapter; Embedded With The Troops; we witness Union soldiers in a tree looking across the Rappahannock River as the smoke of battle rises behind the captured town of Fredericksburg.The story of Civil War photography is not complete without tracing the perilous journey of the photographs "negatives" through nearly 80 years of American history as well as giving us a personal sense of poignancy to the life changing experiences major personalities of photograhic history have had.In his first chapter; Bob Zeller tells us how a photographic exhibit in 1840 dramatically changed Edward Anthony's life and how his fascination and love for photography would build the largest photographic supply company in the United States. Bob Zeller completed the circle of life changing experiences how a young boy of nine in 1955; William A.Frassanito; read a Life Magazine article on the Civil War and the article's photograhs ignited all his youthful energies into the study of the photographs of the Civil War. Twenty years later; Frassanito; would write Gettysburg: A Journey in Time that established the academic standard for investigating Civil War photographs as documents of history. The author's tale is not complete until the reader has the opportunity to note the important efforts being made to preserve the images by the digitizing project of the Library of Congress.It is a great book and I highly recommend it.John R KelleyPhotographic HistorianPoughkeepsie; NY
