Overview
During World War II posters were the most widely used propaganda tools of all the combatant nations. During the war posters were literally everywhere, imparting immediate and forceful messages. Posters were used in a variety of ways: as an appeal to patriotism in aid of recruitment, as warnings to upkeep national security against spies and saboteurs, and general pleas to aid the war effort, either by working in factories or buying war bonds. They highlighted enemy atrocities, reminded the people of the nation’s allies, and gave dire warnings of the consequences of defeat and enemy occupation. As such posters were responsible for arousing a wide range of sentiments: hatred, paranoia, pride, and nationalism.
Posters of World War II is a study of the war poster as a propaganda phenomenon between 1939 and 1945. It considers that they were often excellent and beautiful pieces of artwork as much as they were tools for imparting information. Never before has such a comprehensive collection of World War II posters and authoritative text been combined. Posters of World War II contains 200 posters, which accompanies by detailed captions. The text details the facts about the poster, where possible profiling the artist, explains the significance of its message, and considers its impact in the context of the war. Thus there are posters by such famous artists as Cyril Kenneth Bird, better known as Fougasse, Abram Games, and the Nazi propagandist Hans Schweitzer, who operated under the name Mjölnir.
The book considers the changing nature of posters as the war developed, giving an insight into the thoughts and fears of the officials tasked with producing propaganda. As such, they reflected the changing strategic situation. In 1941 and 1942, for example, Soviet posters had concentrated on calls to save the Motherland, but after 1943 Russian propaganda changed as a result of battlefield victories on the Eastern Front. Now the call was to destroy the German fascist invader and capture Berlin itself. Posters of World War II is an important contribution to the study of propaganda in warfare.