The Unruly Tongue

"When and how did pictures permeate everyday lives in the United States? What happened to those daily lives when they did? And what happened to pictures in the process? This book traces the beginnings of a transformation in cultural life in the US: when widespread circulation of pictures reshaped a culture accustomed to printed and spoken words. In the three decades before the Civil War, the ordinary experiences of a large segment of the population came to include pictures of many kinds, including illustrations in books, pamphlets, and newspapers; photographs on cards; full-sheet printed pictures collected in scrapbooks or albums or hung on walls; posters and broadsheets; spectacular paintings displayed in theatrical venues; and more. Pictures supplemented verbal texts--and in some cases overshadowed them--for conveying news and information; portraying people, places, and events; focusing public discourse; selling things; educating and instructing; generating excitement and aesthetic gratification; promoting and disguising political agendas; shaping social identities; and building and undermining social bonds. This study recovers a time before successful pictorial formulas for mass appeal were established, before an audience habituated to consumption of pictures existed, and before pictures had become thoroughly commodified. The foundations for our picture-saturated twenty-first century can be seen in the developments explored in this book"--Publisher's description.