Dorothea Lange, documentary photography, and twentieth-century America : reinventing self and nation / Carol Quirke.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Dorothea Lange and turn-of-the-century America, 1895-1912 -- "I knew it was dangerous to have something to fall back on" : finding the new woman, finding herself, 1912-1918 -- Love and work : tangled negotiations, 1918-1929 -- "To grab a hunk of lightning" : a radical change of focus, 1929-1934 -- Words would not be enough, 1934-1935 -- "These things are a pressin' on us" : Dorothea Lange as government photographer -- The sorriest place in this country : Dorothea Lange and southern struggles, 1935-1939 -- "Moving about people" and the Great Plains Blues, 1935-1940 -- "In the ditches at the end of beauty" : California in the depression -- "Woman can change better'n a man" : women in the Great Depression -- "This is what we did, how did it happen, how could we" : democracy under assault -- Conclusion: "the last ditch" : Dorothea Lange and the persistence of vision, 1945-1965 -- Primary documents: reading photography in the archives -- Study questions -- Bibliography -- Index.