Brain Fuel

It’s nearly impossible to remember the most significant events in our nation’s history without having specific images immediately appear in our mind’s eye: photographs in color and in black and white that tell stories of spectacular achievement and stunning tragedy. However, there is far more information and misinformation in a classic photo than most of us realize. This lecture makes this point crystal clear by focusing on three especially captivating photographs: Joe Rosenthal’s Flag Raising on Mt. Suribachi (1945), Stanley Forman’s The Soiling of Old Glory (1976), and Tom Franklin’s Flag Raising at Ground Zero (2001). Professor Masur explains how it’s not only possible to see these photographs in an entirely new and fascinating way, but how taken together, the three are nothing short of a blueprint of the transformation of the United States from World War II through the Bicentennial to the catastrophe of 9/11.