the weight of authenticity that came to character-
ize this practice.Lifedeserves credit for partici-
pating in the development of this form of visual
rhetoric, even as its editorial points of view must
be clearly understood.
Under Luce’s watch, for example, the magazine
took an editorial stance in favor of intervention in
the European conflicts of the late 1930s. To enlist
the support of their readers, they published stories
that focused on France’s and Britain’s need for
help. In the wake of Germany’s annexation of
Austria they ran a 16-page spread in their 28
March 1938 issue on the rise of the Nazi party.
The accompanying text opined that Austria was
just the first step in Germany’s plans for European
domination; it further decried the treatment of
Jews under the Nazis. With this article, and others
like it, the editors ofLifeattempted to shake the
magazine’s readers out of their lingering isolation-
ist slumber and prepare them for war. Over the
next three years, the magazine would steadily
endorse the need for American involvement in the
European conflict and stress the implausibility that
the French Army or the British navy would be able
to forestall a German advance westward.
The culmination of the magazine’s World War II
editorializing came with Luce’s famous essay ‘‘The
American Century,’’ which appeared in the 17 Feb-
ruary 1941 issue. Luce usedLife’s editorial page to
argue that Americans must ‘‘accept wholeheartedly
our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful
and vital nation in the world and in consequence to
exert upon the world the full import of our influ-
ence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such
means as we see fit.’’ He looked beyond the war as
well to a time when the country would assume its
role as de facto leaders of the world. In this light,
the international coverage in the magazine took on
the quality of surveying an empire, one that Luce
argued belonged rightfully to all Americans willing
to step up and accept their destiny.
Once the United States entered the war, Life
endeavored to reinforce the decision and to defend
theirroleinshapingpublicopinion.Inthe15Decem-
ber 1941 issue, the magazine editorialized that
Life’s new-age journalism makes information aboutall
the forces that move and shape our lives easy to under-
stand and absorb—and infinitely exciting. In doing this,
Lifehelps great masses of people come to grips with the
world as it really is—helps them make more intelligent
decisions.Lifecovered World War II aggressively, sending
its best photographers around the world to capture
in great detail every battle they could—it even set
up a training camp for new war photographers as
many of its veterans were already in the field.
Bourke-White photographed Red Square in Mos-
cow the night the Germans bombed the Kremlin;
Robert Capa was on the beach with the GIs during
the invasion of Normandy on D-Day; William
Vandivert endured the Blitz of London; and W.
Eugene Smith sent back unsparing images of the
rigors of the Pacific conflict. Their efforts brought
impressive returns. By some estimates, 15% of all
American adults readLifemagazine by the time the
conflicts in Europe began.
Lifewas not without controversy during its rise,
both from outside and inside the magazine. From
the start, many scholars criticized the magazine’s
oversimplification of complex subjects (such as
Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy). Others found it
culturally philistine. DespiteLife’s constant com-
mitment to reproducing art—they reproduced over
72 paintings in the first six months of 1950—many
modern artists criticized their less-than-adventur-
ous selections. The conservatism of the first decade
changed incrementally as evidenced by lavishly illu-
strated articles on Abstract Expressionism as early
as 11 October 1948 and continuing for the follow-
ing decade. Internally, the problems tended to
involve rifts between the editors and the photogra-
phers or writers. W. Eugene Smith, who had over
50 photo-essays inLifebetween 1946 and 1952,
eventually quit at the height of his success because
he had no control over the final layout of his
pictures or the content of the captions. He objected
strenuously and over a long period, but the editors
were unwilling to give up control of the key stage in
creating the magazine. Smith resigned in 1954.
Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s,Life
maintained a dominant position in the magazine
world. One 1950 survey estimated that half of the
American population now read at least one copy of
Lifein a three-month period. By 1953, almost 5
million copies were sold each week—which implied
that over 26 million actually read the magazine once
the ‘‘pass-around’’ factor was considered. Some of
the magazine’s most memorable stories date to
those years, including W. Eugene Smith’s ‘‘A Span-
ish Village’’ (9 April 1951). Despite the advances in
television technology, and a growing audience for
the programs it carried,Lifecontinued to offer one
of the most popular formats for the communication
of news and events. Television did not have the
capability to air news footage in ways compelling
enough to stealLife’s audience—yet.
With the exponential growth of television—both
in terms of people who owned TVs and with what
was being offered by the networks—the 1960sLIFE MAGAZINE