Customer Reviews

The American Flag

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I don't know if this is a case of buy a book and get a flag or the other way round, either way the flag comes off best, it's three by five foot and made of filament polyester. As to the book I think Old Glory deserves better, there are sixty-two photos in seventy-two pages and many of them are blurred (not because the flag is fluttering in the wind) or over enlarged, a few of them are really not worth including. The images came from stock photo agencies, a page in the back of the book gives their names and pages numbers, only the book has no page numbers (this might give you an idea about seriously the publishers took this production) so there are no photographer's credits or captions to tell you where or when each photo was taken. Of course some of the photos are worth looking at, one of the flag made of neon certainly is and several of the outdoor ones are arresting.

At the start of the book Whitney Smith of the Flag Research Center writes a short essay about the origins of the flag but does not include a diagram about how to fold it correctly or say anything about the strong and enduring symbolism of the twelve folds. For a package that includes a real flag I feel this is a major omission.

Far better than `The American Flag', are two books by leading American graphic designer Kit Hinrichs, `Stars& Stripes' has the work of ninety-six designers and their graphic interpretations of the flag. A book of coffee table proportions and stunningly designed is `Long May She Wave', it features hundreds of images from Hinrichs own huge flag collection. Finally, have a look at `United We Stand' by Peter Gwillim Kreitler, a lovely little paperback with 106 magazine covers from July 1942 all of which have the flag as a prominent part of the cover design. Stirring stuff!