Dorothea Lange's photographs define how people remember the Depression generation. Now, acclaimed historian Gordon provides an evocative biography that defines Lange's creative struggles and enduring legacy.
We all know Dorothea Lange's iconic photos the Migrant Mother holding her child, the shoeless children of the Dust Bowl but now renowned American historian Linda Gordon brings them to three-dimensional life in this groundbreaking exploration of Lange's transformation into a documentarist. Using Lange's life to anchor a moving social history of twentieth-century America, Gordon masterfully re-creates bohemian San Francisco, the Depression, and the Japanese-American internment camps. Accompanied by more than one hundred images many of them previously unseen and some formerly suppressed Gordon has written a sparkling, fast-moving story that testifies to her status as one of the most gifted historians of our time. Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; a New York Times Notable Book; New Yorker's A Year's Reading; and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book."