Most war posters were aimed particularly at civilian populations. Posters nationalized, mobilized, and modernized those populations, thereby influencing how they viewed themselves and their activities. The home-front life - factory work, agricultural work, domestic work, the consumption and conservation of goods, as well as various forms of leisure - became, through the viewing of posters, emblematic of national identity and of each citizen's place within the collective effort to win the war.
Essays by Jay Winter, Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Jennifer D. Keene, and others reveal the centrality of visual media, particularly the poster, within the specific national contexts of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States during World War I. Ultimately, posters were not merely representations of popular understanding of the war, but instruments influencing the reach, meaning, and memory of the war in subtle and pervasive ways.
Pearl James (Edited by)
Pub Date: 25 Mar 2010
Paperback 440pp 54 illustrations
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