War Posters: Weapons of Mass Communication [Hardcover]

I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

There is little more you could ask of an art book than dozens of large, clear, full colour images and clear descriptions. The posters are split into categories, with introductions giving an overview for each one. These introductions are not particularly in depth and probably wouldn't be much use to someone looking for a history of propaganda, for instance. As an art book, however, it is superb, covering a wide range of styles, dates and regions and put together in a rather beautiful collection.

I definitely wasn't expecting to buy a book like this. When i first saw it i thought it was a little book but when it arrived i was shocked... in a good way of course.
Its a big and quality book, that helps when we are working or viewing pictures like these.

This is a MUST for everyone who likes art or are interested in this kind of history.