This is a truly fascinating book produced in 1968. It is full of posters, in colour and black and white, produced by all the belligerents during the First World War. Much copied, the famous Kitchener picture pointing a finger “Your Country needs You”. The French of course manage to get a bare bosom, or two, into their posters! The recruiting posters – jolly, winsome, stern and patriotic, all have similar themes to encourage citizens to join a great crusade. Many of them pull on the heart strings alluding to dastardly deeds done by the enemy, or portray the plucky soldier saving the nation, often in the form of women and children from a fate worse than death. There are recruiting posters for the Red Cross, for the Friends of the War Orphans or announcing benefit concerts in aid of the wounded. The surprise to me was the many posters calling for investment in the war. Every country appealed for money to continue the fight and some got increasingly desperate as the war went on and the costs rose. WW1 posters are a whole study on their own and this book, sadly no longer in print, is very rewarding in the detail and breath of its coverage for the student of WW1 and the more casual reader.
DEL