What do we 'see' when we think of Italy? How is our sense of that country, its people and culture formed, what conditions it? Looters, Photographers, and Thieves suggests that our visualization and relationship to a place like Italy is the result of a long and complex series of constructed images that have their origins in the ideology of nation building.

Chapter 1 Acknowledgements Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 1. The Raw and the Cooked-Up Chapter 4 2. Photography as Literary Art Chapter 5 3. Photographers, Looters, and Thieves: Stolen States of the Image/nation Chapter 6 4. Giovanni Verga: Photography and Verismo Chapter 7 5. Imagining America: The Photography of Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis Chapter 8 6. Imaginative Contradictions: Von Gloeden's Disruptive Bodies of Representation Chapter 9 7. Tina Modotti: Life through the Ground-glass Chapter 10 Notes Chapter 11 Bibliography Chapter 12 Index