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Posters of the Great War: Published in association with Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne, France,
Until the arrival of radio and television, and despite the influence of newspapers, posters were the major medium for mass communication. During the Great War, all the belligerent nations produced an extraordinary variety of them - and they did so on a massive scale. As the 200 wartime and immediate post-war posters selected for this book reveal, they were one of the most potent, and memorable, ways of conveying news, information and propaganda.
In the most graphic and colorful fashion they promoted values such as patriotism and sacrifice. By using rallying symbols such as flags as well as historical and mythical models, they sought to maintain morale and draw people together by stirring up anger against the enemy. Today their remarkable variety of styles gives us an instant insight into the themes and messages the military and civilian authorities wished to publicize.
The sheer inventiveness of the poster artists is demonstrated as they focused on key aspects of the propaganda campaign in Britain, France, Germany, America and Russia. The diversity of their work is displayed here in chapters that cover recruitment, money raising, the soldier, the enemy, the family and the home front, films and the post-war world.
A century ago, when these images were first viewed, they must have been even more striking in contrast to the poor-quality newspaper photographs and postcards that were available at the time. The Great War was to change that forever. It introduced a means of propaganda that was novel, persuasive and above all, powerful. It was the first media war, and the poster played a key role in it.
In the most graphic and colorful fashion they promoted values such as patriotism and sacrifice. By using rallying symbols such as flags as well as historical and mythical models, they sought to maintain morale and draw people together by stirring up anger against the enemy. Today their remarkable variety of styles gives us an instant insight into the themes and messages the military and civilian authorities wished to publicize.
The sheer inventiveness of the poster artists is demonstrated as they focused on key aspects of the propaganda campaign in Britain, France, Germany, America and Russia. The diversity of their work is displayed here in chapters that cover recruitment, money raising, the soldier, the enemy, the family and the home front, films and the post-war world.
A century ago, when these images were first viewed, they must have been even more striking in contrast to the poor-quality newspaper photographs and postcards that were available at the time. The Great War was to change that forever. It introduced a means of propaganda that was novel, persuasive and above all, powerful. It was the first media war, and the poster played a key role in it.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published May 20, 2013
4 people want to read
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March 26, 2023
This is an interesting 2013 book about the history of war time posters in World War I. It has a lot of color posters, including posters from England, America, Germany, Austro- Hungary, Russia, Canada, and Italy. It gave a good description of fundamentals of poster designs and how those designs changed over time. For the non-English posters, the author provided an English translation and often also what message a particular image is meant to convey. Overall, this is a very short book that is easy to read and very informative.
The book provides a good history on poster development. It starts with explaining how early posters (or handbills) have no illustrations because of technology constraints. It was not until 1795 that people figured out how to print graphics without the need to engrave wood or metal to create relief. Instead, pictures were printed using paint that is imposed directly on a calcareous stone. The author also explained how posters initially used to provide public information when national news was not widely available and few people could read. They also described how the turn of the 20th century was the golden age of advertising posters, especially in America, where it has a more sophisticated advertising industry at the time. When the First World War came, it was the first time illustrated posters was mass used for propaganda purposes by all combatants.
The author also described the various uses of wartime posters: recruitment, fund raising (savings stamps and war bonds), general propaganda (such as to persuade the country of righteousness of the war). In England, in 1917 the Ministry of Information was formed to organize propaganda. The United States has a similar department, called the Division of Pictorial Publicity.
The book is divided into seven chapters, each covering posters on a certain subject area.
Chapter 1 is titled “Recruiting”. It is interesting to know that most recruitment posters in WW1 are British because they started the war with the smallest army. Apparently, unlike France and Germany England has no mandatory military service. A particular famous theme to use was the question “Daddy what did you do in the Great War?”, which was the use of emotional blackmail to entice people to enlist.
Chapter 2 is titled “Loans and Money”. In the United States there were war bonds and war savings stamps. The former were mainly sold to institutions and corporations. The latter were for individuals. The author noted that despite the fact there were a lot of war bond posters by all countries, they did not raise much money for any of those countries.
Chapter 3 is titled “The Soldier”.
Chapter 4 is titled “The Enemy”.
Chapter 5 is titled “The Family and the Home Front”.
Chapter 6 is titled “Films”. It discussed the role of film in war and showed the readers a lot of war time film posters.
Chapter 7 is titled “After the War”.
The book provides a good history on poster development. It starts with explaining how early posters (or handbills) have no illustrations because of technology constraints. It was not until 1795 that people figured out how to print graphics without the need to engrave wood or metal to create relief. Instead, pictures were printed using paint that is imposed directly on a calcareous stone. The author also explained how posters initially used to provide public information when national news was not widely available and few people could read. They also described how the turn of the 20th century was the golden age of advertising posters, especially in America, where it has a more sophisticated advertising industry at the time. When the First World War came, it was the first time illustrated posters was mass used for propaganda purposes by all combatants.
The author also described the various uses of wartime posters: recruitment, fund raising (savings stamps and war bonds), general propaganda (such as to persuade the country of righteousness of the war). In England, in 1917 the Ministry of Information was formed to organize propaganda. The United States has a similar department, called the Division of Pictorial Publicity.
The book is divided into seven chapters, each covering posters on a certain subject area.
Chapter 1 is titled “Recruiting”. It is interesting to know that most recruitment posters in WW1 are British because they started the war with the smallest army. Apparently, unlike France and Germany England has no mandatory military service. A particular famous theme to use was the question “Daddy what did you do in the Great War?”, which was the use of emotional blackmail to entice people to enlist.
Chapter 2 is titled “Loans and Money”. In the United States there were war bonds and war savings stamps. The former were mainly sold to institutions and corporations. The latter were for individuals. The author noted that despite the fact there were a lot of war bond posters by all countries, they did not raise much money for any of those countries.
Chapter 3 is titled “The Soldier”.
Chapter 4 is titled “The Enemy”.
Chapter 5 is titled “The Family and the Home Front”.
Chapter 6 is titled “Films”. It discussed the role of film in war and showed the readers a lot of war time film posters.
Chapter 7 is titled “After the War”.
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