Illusions in motion : media archaeology of the moving panorama and related spectacles /

In this fascinating book, Huhtamo (Univ. of California, Los Angeles) practices media archaeology, recovering ephemeral traces to reconstruct earlier generations' experiences amid the multisensory stimuli of the moving panorama and related entertainments. This reviewer found Huhtamo's book to be as deeply engaging and enchanting as its subjects aspired to be. Today's cultures of simulation and virtual realities owe much to the examples described here. Huhtamo persuasively relates the emergence of modern "media culture" to the moving panorama. Predecessor to cinema, the moving pictures of the panorama depended on audience engagement. By analyzing the content of the panorama shows, Huhtamo helps readers understand how the virtual travel these entertainments provided served as vehicles for geographical knowledge and tools through which to dream of times and places beyond one's own home. Through his analysis of the techniques employed in these moving spectacles, he situates them in relation to the substantial literature on panoramas and related public entertainments. This excellent book adds significantly to predecessors such as Richard Altick's The Shows of London (1978). It is impeccably researched and beautifully designed and illustrated, largely with artifacts collected by the author himself. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. J. E. Housefield University of California, Davis