The photographs that appear in newspapers or on television documenting political and social violence—do they exploit the subjects and cater to the voyeurism of viewers, or are they instead precious and indispensable documents? Susie Linfield, a journalism professor at New York University, starts from this question to understand how documentary photography has always worked alongside history, taking on the often difficult task of representing society’s conscience, whether good or bad.

Through the examination of criticism (from Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht to Susan Sontag and postmodern thinkers), emblematic cases (images of the Holocaust, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, African tragedies, and recent terrorist attacks), and great war photographers (Robert Capa, James Nachtwey, and Gilles Peress), Linfield seems to convince us that looking at certain images, and learning to see the people portrayed, is an ethically and politically necessary act that connects us to our modern history of violence and measures our tolerance for cruelty.

"The Cruel Radiance" is a clear and comprehensive book, rich in insights and questions, that debunks some myths of photography and helps—also through its bibliography—to understand and consider the images that reveal the dark side of our world.