Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism (Cultural Studies of the United States)

Laura Wexler presents an incisive analysis of how the first American female photojournalists contributed to a "domestic vision" that reinforced the imperialism and racism of turn-of-the-century America. The images vary from Jessie Tarbox Beals's pictures of the World's Fair of 1904 in St. Louis to Alice Austen's photos of immigrants at Ellis Island. Wexler also examines other women photographers of this period including Gertrude Kasebier, Frances Benjamin Johnston, and the Gerhard sisters.