ABSTRACT
The international tour of The Family of Man was sponsored by the United States Information Agency (USIA) (USIA, known abroad as the United States Information Service (USIS)). The USIS in Germany promoted Steichen’s show with a great deal of energy, and this effort undoubtedly contributed significantly to the immense popularity of the exhibition. The Munich survey, like the Mexico City one, has not previously been examined in the critical literature on The Family of Man; it is because of this, and because it makes a particularly invaluable contribution to the European dimensions of the present volume, that its findings are summarized. But the findings of the survey should nevertheless encourage us to pause and reconsider the broad cultural history James presents, and especially the way in which she formulates the work that The Family of Man did within this history.
