"The book's own subtitle gets it quite wrong: it's not a history of photography at all, it's a history of
cameras—a splendid, broad parade, hitting all the high points, covering the peaks from the earliest pre-1839 beginnings to the Leica M8. In many cases, the pictures of cameras are shown next to photographs taken with them or that might have been taken with something very similar: for instance, Joe Rosenthal's own Speed Graphic is shown next to his photograph of the raising of Old Glory at Iwo Jima. If your photography hobby leans toward an interest in cameras—or, equally, if you actually have an empty space on your coffee table (and if that's true I have not been doing my job)—then this might be for you..."
More on the book....