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The Spectacle Of Citizenship: Halftones, Print Media, And Constructing Americanness, 1880--1940, Sarah Lucinda Grunder

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Advances in photography and conceptions of national identity proceeded side by side during the nineteenth century. The introduction of halftone reproductions marks the beginning of an information revolution and is an important moment not only in media history, but in studies of nineteenth and twentieth century cultural history and studies of national identity. Visual representation of differences between people and places was one means by which people identified and validated Americans' belonging because photographs were infused with authority: they seemed to be truthful, to provide infallible evidence of events and of people. as the nineteenth century gave way to the …