Yale French Studies, Volume 122 : Out of Sight: Political Censorship of the Visual Arts in Nineteenth-Century France

The English saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words" has often been applied in a perverse manner by ruling authorities, who have frequently feared visual imagery even more than the printed word. This was especially the case in countries, such as nineteenth-century France, where a significant segment of the population was illiterate and could understand visual imagery better than the printed word. In this volume, specialists in nineteenth-century French history trace the use of censorship by nineteenth-century authorities who feared the power of all the visual and performing arts, from caricature to the cinema and the theater.

Robert Justin Goldstein is professor emeritus of political science at Oakland University and currently a research associate at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.