12-21-15
Historian reveals the story behind one of the world's most iconic images of war
Historians in the Newstags: WW II, St Pauls Cathedral
The image of St Paul’s Cathedral wreathed in smoke during an air-raid on London, one of the defining images of Britain during WWII, was once described as “war’s greatest picture”.
It was taken by photographer Herbert Mason on December 29, 1940 as German bombs rained down on London.
Now, new research by a Swansea University historian reveals the remarkable and complex history of the picture and the many uses to which it has been put.
Remarkably, even as it was being used as a symbol of defiance in Britain, German newspapers and magazines were using it to illustrate the devastation caused by the Luftwaffe.
Dr Tom Allbeson, a cultural historian at Swansea University argues the history of the picture illustrates the crucial role of images in forming cultural memory and calls on fellow historians to pay more attention to this process and to move photography from the margins of historical research to the centre. ...
comments powered by Disqus
News
- Chair of Florida Charter School Board on Firing of Principal: About Policy, Not David Statue
- Graduate Student Strikes Fight Back Against Decades of Austerity, Seek to Revive Opportunity
- When Right Wingers Struggle with Defining "Woke" it Shows they Oppose Pursuing Equality
- Strangelove on the Square: Secret USAF Films Showed Airmen What to Expect if Nuclear War Broke Out
- The Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- New Books Force Consideration of Reconstruction's End from Black Perspective
- Excerpt: How Apartheid South Africa Tried to Create a Libertarian Utopia
- Historian's Book on 1970s NBA Shows Racial Politics around Basketball Have Always Been Ugly
- Kendi: "Anti-woke" Part of Backlash Against Antiracist Protest Movements
- Monica Muñoz Martinez Honored for Truth-Telling in Texas History