Watching Babylon

The War in Iraq and Global Visual Culture

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by Nicholas Mirzoeff

Routledge

Due/Published March 2005, 208 pages, paper

ISBN 0415343100

This book examines the experience of watching the war against Iraq on television, on the Internet, in print media and in cinema. Looking at the endless stream of images from Iraq requires a new form of visual thinking that highlights the intersection of local and global while recognizing the way in which the war turned images themselves into weapons.

Making connections between the history and legend of ancient Babylon, the Babylon that is Western modernity and everyday life in the modern suburb of Babylon, New York, Mirzoeff explores that part of the ancient which is still present in the modern. Taking cues from Walter Benjamin, he illuminates our Western experience of the Iraqi war by focusing on the intersection of past, present and future.

Contents

1. Babylonian Modernity 2. The Empire of Camps 3. Babylon: Long Island 4. Of Wars, Ancient and Modern