Photos That Changed the World

Some of the photo's are more mundane than riveting (like Marilyn Monroe's skirt billowing around her in Manhattan), but most are galvanizing moments of great importance, frozen in time.I disagree with the platitude that a picture is worth one thousand words. Many are not, but these are worth many more. The pictures speak for themselves, but are accompanied by a descent amount of text.

The biggest criticism of this book may be that the title is misleading. There are a lot of great photographs here, but only about half-a-dozen that truly mobilized public opinion.That being said, this is the century of the photograph, or certainly the news photograph. And many of the iconic photographs of the century are here: planting the flag on Iwo Jima, Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon, the screaming student at Kent State. Other photographs are notable for what they depict: the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the AIDS quilt laid out on the Mall.Each photograph is accompanied by a commentary of varying substance and quality. Some discuss the technical aspects of the photograph, others the background, and others attempt to draw conclusions. The later photographs seem to inspire rather politically biased and arguable commentary, most notably the discussion of the famous Tiananmen Square photograph with an unarmed man halting four Chinese Army tanks. The commentary suggests that the photo depicts individual powerlessness against the "overpowering might" of a ruthless government. I always saw it as showing that an individual could stop tanks.That being said, this is a fascinating and extraordinary collection of photographs that depict key political events of this century. It's riveting browsing.