Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2003 Issue
Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II
We Can Do It! by J. Howard Miller. Courtesy of NARA Still Picture Branch.
In “Man the Guns” we see images of overly muscular soldiers engaging in warlike activity. This segment is named after the first poster, which had been produced for the Navy Recruiting Bureau. The image is of a soldier standing on a navy ship while holding an artillery shell. The background is dark and treacherous; the ocean waves look sinister. Yet the soldier appears confident, determined and courageous. The overtones of masculinity seem dramatic and exaggerated. In retrospect one might wonder how the public could have seen this as anything other than propaganda.
“It’s a Woman’s War Too” focuses on the style and messages of the media that was directed towards the female population. During World War II, the U.S. Government identified women as a potential force. In this segment, one is reminded of the Rosie the Riveter theme. The underlying message was that since the men were away fighting, it was every American woman’s duty to dry her eyes and find a job to support the war. The most striking of these posters is “We Can Do It!” Here we see a woman dressed in overalls and a bandana, flexing her arm muscles in a show of patriotic feminine strength.
The third segment, “United We Win” presents the propaganda used to appeal to African American men in the war effort. The second image displayed here is David Stone Martin’s “Above and Beyond the Call of Duty”. This poster depicts Dorie Miller, the famous black navy mess man (at that time, African Americans in the military were not allowed to engage in battle) who had been awarded the Navy Cross for his bravery and accomplishments in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Very crucial to the wartime effort was the need for Americans to conserve all products. The fourth segment, “Use it Up, Wear it Out” consists of images used to promote conservation of materials. Most interesting is Henry Koerner’s 1943 “Save Waste Fats for Explosives” The image here is of a hand pouring a pan of fat into explosive materials.
The fifth segment, “Four Freedoms” is taken from that famous speech given by President Roosevelt to Congress in 1941. In this speech FDR stressed the value of American liberties and freedoms and the threat of their removal with war. Along with the images in this segment is an audio excerpt from this speech. The posters presented here consist of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms series that were shown in the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell had been specifically motivated to create these images upon listening to FDR’s speech. Rockwell’s posters are “Freedom of Speech”, “Freedom of Worship”, “Freedom from Want” and “Freedom from Fear”.
Part Two is also divided into five different themes: “Warning! Our Homes Are in Danger Now!”, “This is Nazi Brutality”, “He’s Watching You”, “He Knew the Meaning of Sacrifice” and “Stamp Em Out!”
In the first segment, “Warning! Our Homes Are in Danger Now!” the viewer gets the feeling they are embarking on a darker path than Part One. This segment presents images that used the threat of Nazism to appeal to the emotions of the American public. Colors are dark and vivid. Most interesting in this segment is the poster “Keep These Hands Off!” By G.K. Odell. This is an image of a mother holding a child, while in the foreground are black and shadowy claw-like hands with swastikas and a Japanese flag.
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