In the tradition of The Empathy Exams and Uncommon Measures, Look Out is a profound and prismatic investigation of taking the long view. Look Out is an investigation of long-distance mapping, aerial photography, and top-down perspectives—from pre–Civil War America to our vexed modern times of drone warfare, hyper-surveillance at home and abroad, and quarantine and protest. Blending history, reporting, personal experience, and accounts of activists, programmers, spies, architects, artists, and entrepreneurs, Edward McPherson reveals that to see is to control—and the stakes are high for...