This book has to be considered as a classic in the field. Ironically, Mitchell's term 'pictorial turn' seems to be more widespread than knowledge of this book, with the unsettling consequence that many people talk about pictures *replacing* the word, and few about the intricate and complex relationship between the two.
The book is surprisingly well written, rarely has an academic book entertained me so much. For everybody who wants to know what *pictorial turn* means from the point of view of the person who coined this phrase, I can only recommend it warmest.

The dinosaur continues to evolve- and for now it's alive and well as this compelling look at dinosaur images artfully affirms. Just as Rudolph Zallinger's sweeping mural, reproduced in Chapter 31, "synthesizes the understanding of dinosaurs in the modern period", Mitchell's comprehensive and insightful book brings together myriad representations of the dinosaur and offers fascinating contexts in which to explore the role of this imagery in the 20th century. From aliens to The Far Side, from Thomas Jefferson to Indiana Jones, the author suggests this familiar cultural icon depicts life as we both wish it and fear it to be. The evolving image of the dinosaur has much to teach the modern reader, and this stunning book is its greatest visual aid.

Read and find out. In this engaging book, cultural critic and historian WJT Mitchell will convince even the most skeptical reader that dinosaurs are amongst us, around us, in us--a thriving cultural icon of our time. Mitchell has written this book to include the reader beyond the academy. Consequently, it is "popular" writing at its finest: learned, witty, sophisticated. Ignore those sour reviews in the NYT, and read.

THE LAST DINOSAUR BOOK elucidates the value of cultural studies. It powerfully frames a discussion about what we are as a culture while bypassing all the standard cliches. In the "totem" of the dinosaur, Mitchell is able to see a kaleidoscope of ambivalent pulls upon the fibers of our motivations. Utilizing various cultural phenomena, Mitchell makes clear in a comprehensive fashion why the dinosaur so well speaks for our cultural unconscious and the changes it is going through in the way of "sex, money, politics, and nature." The dinosaur does this in many ways because it is a category (if not actual phenomena) that we as moderns created and as post-moderns recreated. In a sense, the "dinosaur" itself, as a category, is a powerful "over-reading." How odd then that Mitchell should be accused of over-interpretation, when he is merely being a responsible critic who refuses to deny that which is of interest in our culture and quite undogmatically offers us some tools to begin to engage some of the dominant yet contradictory symbols of our culture. This is a vital book that cuts across disciplines and makes us realize what cultural studies is for.

This book had a hard time keeping my attention. It is of course, short stories from the men who were there and originally written to be read by other soldiers only, in a soldiering magazine, circa 1944. I felt "The Thousand Mile War," was much better written and left me with a better understanding of the battle for Attu. Now, please understand some of the soldiers stories were very interesting, but more of them weren't, in my opinion.

In 1942 Attu (one thousand miles from the Alaskan mainland and the western-most island in the Aleutian chain) was home to two Americans and forty-five Aleut hunters and their families. In June 1942 Attu and the nearby island of Kiska were invaded by the Japanese in the hopes of forestalling use of the islands by the Americans and hindering any U.S. - Soviet cooperation, as well as establishing Japanese military bases for attacks on the American mainland. On May 11, 1943, the U.S. effort to retake Attu began. The struggle was essentially an infantry battle. The ever-present fog, rain and high wind limited the use of air power, and the craggy terrain made mechanized equipment next to useless. The American infantry retook the island foot by foot. Lieutenant Robert J. Mitchell was wounded in the battle. During his convalescence he took down the accounts of the survivors while their memories were fresh. In The Capture Of Attu, he presents them in his fellow combatants own immediate, direct, and informal language. This compilation of eye-witness, front-line infantry descriptions is a very welcome and highly recommended addition to the growing library of World War II memoirs now available for scholars and military buffs.

The introduction says "This is a book about the things people say about images". As a person who buys a lot of instructional books which I hope are insightful and succinct I found this overwritten. Someone liking miles of wordy literary type criticism might find it appealing.