“The growing inter-communication of distant nations, the rapid transmission of intelligence over the globe — the worldwide ramifications of commerce — bringing together the knowledge, the skill, and the mental power of the world, cannot but dispel prejudice, dissolve the granite barriers of arbitrary power, bring the world into peace and unity.” I’m not sure that’s how our modern connectedness will play out. But that was what Frederick Douglass predicted about the power of new technologies like photography. Jill LePore with a thoughtful look at American Exposure.