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Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers

Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers

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Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers

by Preston Lauterbach

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used Like New
ISBN 10
0393247929
ISBN 13
9780393247923
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About This Item

W. W. Norton & Company, 2019. Hardcover. Used Like New. Used Like New hardcover in a New dust jacket. Publisher's overstock mark on the top of the text block. Pages are clean and free of marks or underlining. 8vo. (6.5 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches) Includes author's notes, index, and photo plates. 352 pp.

Fast shipping in a secure book box mailer with tracking. The little-known story of an iconic photographer, whose work captured―and influenced―a critical moment in American history.

Who was Ernest Withers? Most Americans may not know the name, but they do know his photographs. Withers took some of the most legendary images of the 1950s and '60s: Martin Luther King, Jr., riding a newly integrated bus in Montgomery, Alabama; Emmett Till's uncle pointing an accusatory finger across the courtroom at one of his nephew's killers; scores of African-American protestors, carrying a forest of signs reading "I am a man." But while he enjoyed unparalleled access to the inner workings of the civil rights movement, Withers was working as an informant for the FBI.

In this gripping narrative history, Preston Lauterbach examines the complicated political and economic forces that informed Withers's seeming betrayal of the people he photographed. Withers traversed disparate worlds, from Black Power meetings to raucous Memphis nightclubs where Elvis brushed shoulders with B.B. King. He had a gift for capturing both dramatic historic moments and intimate emotional ones, and it may have been this attention to nuance that made Withers both a brilliant photographer and an essential asset to the FBI. Written with similar nuance, Bluff City culminates with a riveting account of the 1968 riot that ended in violence just a few days before Dr. King's death.

Brimming with new information and featuring previously unpublished and rare photographs from the Withers archive not seen in over fifty years, Bluff City grapples with the legacy of a man whose actions―and artistry―make him an enigmatic and fascinating American figure.

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Details

Bookseller
The Anthropologists Closet US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
201011
Title
Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers
Author
Preston Lauterbach
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
New
Quantity Available
1
ISBN 10
0393247929
ISBN 13
9780393247923
Publisher
W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published
2019
Keywords
Biography, US history, American history, Historical figure, Ernest Withers, Photographer, Photography, 1950s, 1960s, civil rights movement, Black history, African American studies, riot,
Bookseller catalogs
African American Studies;

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About the Seller

The Anthropologists Closet

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
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Des Moines, Iowa

About The Anthropologists Closet

The Anthropologists Closet is a small mother-daughter-owned online bookstore. We offer a wide range of academic non-fiction books, a large collection of art catalogs, signed books, and an extensive history and military collection. We uphold high ethical standards and are dedicated to ensuring that our listings are accurate and that our customers are satisfied. Our books are packaged with care in a secure book box mailer with tracking. We offer full refunds and free return shipping. Satisfaction guaranteed!

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Text Block
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Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...

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