Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface. -- Introduction -- 1 : topography and travel : the first photobooks -- 2 : facing facts : the nineteenth-century photobook as record -- 3 : photography as art : the pictorial photobook -- 4 : photo eye : the modernist photobook -- 5 : a day in the life : the documentary photobook in the 1930s -- 6 : medium and message : the photobook as propaganda -- 7 : memory and reconstruction : the postwar European photobook -- 8 : the indecisive moment : the 'stream-of-consciousness' photobook -- 9 : provocative materials for thought : the postwar Japanese photobook -- Notes -- Select bibliography -- Index.

This volume provides a unique perspective on the story of photography through the particular history of the photobook. It is the study of the major trends and movements that have shaped the photobook genre since the birth of photography in the early 19th century.