The well-illustrated articles in Observing the World through Images offer insights into the uses of images in astronomy, mathematics, instrument-making, medicine and alchemy, highlighting shared forms as well as those peculiar to individual disciplines. Themes addressed include: the processes of image production and communication; the transformation of images through copying and adaptation for new purposes; genres and traditions of imagery in particular scientific disciplines; the mnemonic and pedagogical value of diagrams; the relationship between text and image; and the roles of diagrams as tools to think with. Contributors include: Isabelle Pantin, Jennifer Rampling, Samuel Gessner, Renee Raphael, Karin Ekholm, Hester Higton, and Katie Taylor.

In recent decades, we have witnessed an explosion in the number of visual images we encounter, as our lives have become increasingly saturated with screens. From Google Images to Instagram, video games to installation art, this transformation is confusing, liberating and worrying all at once, since observing the new visuality of culture is not the same as understanding it. Nicholas Mirzoeff is a leading figure in the field of visual culture, which aims to make sense of this extraordinary explosion of visual experiences. As Mirzoeff reminds us, this is not the first visual revolution; the 19th century saw the invention of film, photography and x-rays, and the development of maps, microscopes and telescopes made the 17th century an era of visual discovery. But the sheer quantity of images produced on the internet today has no parallels. In the first book to define visual culture for the general reader, Mirzoeff draws on art history, theory and everyday experience to provide an engaging and accessible overview of how visual materials shape and define our lives.

Lavishly illustrated with 196 rare and historical maps it recounts tales of atlas makers from pre-Gutenberg to electronic atlas.

Relates the stories behind the photographs of 9/11, discusses the controversy over whether the images are exploitative or redemptive, and shows how photographs help us witness, grieve, and understand the unimaginable.

Gilbert and Kilby offer a portrait of C.S. Lewis and the milieu in which he lived, using words and pictures to try to represent vividly some aspects of his life.

Here is a book that indelibly captures the human pageant through the remarkable art of photojournalism. After all, we live in a visual age, when history is both made and experienced through photographs, from the flag raising at Iwo Jima to the thrill of the first footstep on the moon. Now TIME has gathered the most significant and influential photos in history in a magnificent volume that celebrates the art and craft of photojournalism: Great Images. Here are scientific breakthroughs, political upheavals and social revolutions, from the first photographs of an embryo in a human womb to the indelible images of America's Civil Rights movement. Here are sailors kissing nurses, a single man defying a Chinese tank, firefighters raising the American flag over the ruins of the World Trade Center. Based on a highly successful 2000 book, this new edition has been completely updated to add the most significant pictures of the last decade, from hanging chads ands the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.