Taking the fall of the Berlin Wall as a key marker in recent history - a period in which increasingly we find ourselves watching 'instant history' unfold live on air - the book presents a new critical concept of image critique: a double procedure of both a critique of images and the use of images as a means to engage with our contemporary mediated culture for new critical purposes. A rich array of primary sources are woven together to provide a thorough critique of the recent and lively theoretical debates about visual culture. Topics range from Francis Fukuyama's End of History thesis to meta