The cover of the 17 May 1963 issue of Life showed firemen turning hoses on peaceful black protestors in Birmingham, Alabama. One of the most influential news sources of the period, the magazine's photographic essay on the events in Birmingham was widely read and its iconic images became part of a civil rights canon credited with generating white support for racial reform. But in this new interpretation of civil rights imagery, Berger suggests that white viewers’ understanding of events in the city was formed through “a race-based lens that was only loosely tied to visual evidence,” and which ultimately limited reform.

Early civil rights historiography established the key role images played in gaining support for the movement, a consensus forming that the presentation of blacks as victims of white violence effected reform. Berger argues, however, that the representation by the white press of a nonthreatening civil rights movement, portraying blacks as lacking agency and placing them in limited roles while emphasizing white power, held more complex messages with which earlier historians failed to engage. While acknowledging that the photographs generated sympathy, Berger contends that the emphasis on reproducing dramatic scenes was a distraction from the business of reform; the movement was reduced to “a narrative of spectacular violence,” at the expense of examining underlying issues (4). The focus on violence also suggested that whites were granting rights to passive victims. This simplified narrative became the accepted and acceptable face of civil rights. Ultimately, Berger argues, well-meaning northern whites reduced reform to incremental improvement.

One of the many strengths of this book is its multidisciplinary approach. Of particular interest is Berger's examination of the distinction made by psychologists between shame and guilt. Many liberal whites expressed shame at white-on-black violence and hoped that this would trigger reform. But Berger suggests that shame evoked limited empathy with blacks, thus restricting reform; experiencing guilt may have led to greater empathy and more support for radical change.

In one of the most compelling parts of his analysis, Berger discusses a selection of “lost” images of civil rights, ignored by the white media because they complicated the accepted narrative. These include graphic examples of white-on-black violence, and images of peaceful black protest published despite, rather than because of, their connection with civil rights. A photograph of Ethel Witherspoon resisting arrest was reproduced on the front pages of several black newspapers but not used by the mainstream white press, reflecting anxiety that it would complicate a simplified narrative; it was used by reactionary white publishers for the same reason. The absence in the white media of any representation of Emmett Till is an omission that Berger believes reflected white inability to face up to racial murder, rather than difficulty obtaining images of the dead child. Finally, Berger provides a fascinating analysis of the controversial black power salute at the Olympic Games. Smith and Carlos were perceived as threatening not just because of the apparent associations of the image with black power, but because their claim to be both black and American was ultimately too complicated for white America. We can consider this a transitional image, linking the iconography of peaceful protest and black action. That it did nothing to advance the black cause at the time Berger attributes to its presentation without explanatory framing.

The representative sample of iconic images in this book is usefully related to other photographic canons, illustrating Berger's point that white Americans have historically failed to see universal suffering in images of black distress; recognizing that representations of black poverty would not generate support for government reform, Roy Stryker urged his FSA photographers to concentrate on images of whites. It would be interesting to consider whether FSA photography ultimately limited reform for blacks in the New Deal. Further discussion of other factors limiting reform in the 1960s, including Garrow's observations on the readiness of America for radical change, would also be useful.

Berger's analysis is supported by meticulous research, which is expanded on in comprehensive explanatory footnotes and documented in an impressive bibliography. His lucid and persuasive text accompanies carefully selected images. This book makes an important contribution to civil rights historiography and to the wider photographic debate.