Kurdistan – In the Shadow of History 2e - Hardcover

Meiselas, Susan

4.54

54 ratings by Goodreads

9780226519272: Kurdistan – In the Shadow of History 2e

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226519279 ISBN 13: 9780226519272

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2008

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Kurdistan was erased from world maps after World War I, when the victorious powers carved up the Middle East, leaving the Kurds without a homeland. Today the Kurds, who live on land that straddles the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, are by far the largest ethnic group in the world without a state.Renowned photographer Susan Meiselas entered northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War to record the effects of Saddam Hussein's campaigns against Iraq's Kurdish population. She joined Human Rights Watch in documenting the destruction of Kurdish villages (some of which Hussein had attacked with chemical weapons in 1988) and the uncovering of mass graves. Moved by her experiences there, Meiselas began work on a visual history of the Kurds. The result, Kurdistan, gives form to the collective memory of the Kurds and creates from scattered fragments a vital national archive.In addition to Meiselas' own photographs, Kurdistan presents images and accounts by colonial administrators, anthropologists, missionaries, soldiers, journalists, and others who have traveled to Kurdistan over the last century, and, not to forget, by Kurds themselves. In its layering of narratives - both textual and photographic - Kurdistan breaks new ground, expanding our understanding of how images can be used as a medium for historical and cultural representation.A crucial repository of memory for the Kurdish community both in exile and at home, this new edition appears at a time when the world's attention has once again been drawn to the lands of this little-understood but historically consequential people.

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Review:

“A superb and enriching book; the family album of a forsaken people, the archive of a nation that has not been permitted to exist. . . . It is an album rendered in what Virgil called the tears of things, filled with nobility and brutality, passion and terror.”—Karl E. Meyer, "New York"" Times Book Review"--Karl E. Meyer "New York Times Book Review "

“Meiselas has, with infinite labor and tenderness, composed a collage, framed a composition, designed a frame, confected a design and, by means of a deft balance between text and camera, brought off a thing of beauty as well as instruction. . . . This book is everything that scholarship and journalism and humanism ought to aspire to be.”—Christopher Hitchens, "Los Angeles"" Times Book Review"
--Christopher Hitchens "Los Angeles Times Book Review "

"An extraordinarily handsome volume. In a labor of love, Meiselas spent six years combing libraries, archives and family collections for old photographs, postcards, documents, newspaper clippings . . . to produce a visually stunning montage designed to prick the conscience of the world."--Barry Gewen "Paper Cuts "

"A superb and enriching book; the family album of a forsaken people, the archive of a nation that has not been permitted to exist. . . . It is an album rendered in what Virgil called the tears of things, filled with nobility and brutality, passion and terror."--Karl E. Meyer "New York Times Book Review "

"Meiselas has, with infinite labor and tenderness, composed a collage, framed a composition, designed a frame, confected a design and, by means of a deft balance between text and camera, brought off a thing of beauty as well as instruction. . . . This book is everything that scholarship and journalism and humanism ought to aspire to be."--Christopher Hitchens "Los Angeles Times Book Review "

"An extraordinary visual history of an oppressed people....This project is the only living archive for collective Kurdish memory."--Sarah Beth Glicksteen"Christian Science Monitor" (12/12/2008)

A superb and enriching book; the family album of a forsaken people, the archive of a nation that has not been permitted to exist. . . .It is an album rendered in what Virgil called the tears of things, filled with nobility and brutality, passion and terror. --Karl E. Meyer "New York Times Book Review ""

Meiselas has, with infinite labor and tenderness, composed a collage, framed a composition, designed a frame, confected a design and, by means of a deft balance between text and camera, brought off a thing of beauty as well as instruction. . . . This book is everything that scholarship and journalism and humanism ought to aspire to be. --Christopher Hitchens "Los Angeles Times Book Review ""

About the Author:

Susan Meiselas is an award-winning photographer and a member of the Magnum Photos agency. She was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal and was named a MacArthur Fellow. Martin van Bruinessen is an anthropologist who has been involved with the Kurds for over three decades. He is currently a professor at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World and at Utrecht University.

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