Persuasive Images: Posters of War and Revolution from the Hoover Archives.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992.. 4to. 233 pp. Very Good. Hard Cover. Blue cloth covered boards. Dust Jacket Very Good. In protective Mylar wraps. Color plates throughout.Heavy volume, additional shipping fee may apply.The 317 posters reproduced in this volume are drawn from Russia, the USA and Central and Western Europe, documenting the political and military conflicts of the 20th century. The posters form a bridge between the claims of the State and the support or submission of those who must fight. Political posters are historical documents. They open windows to the conditions and conflicts of an earlier time. In their designs and slogans we see how governments and political factions responded to economic crises, social change. and ideological and armed conflict, and how they sought to sway the perceptions and feelings of the man and woman in the street. Posters are also aesthetic objects. Their composition, color and symbols are both separate from their overt political message and the instruments of expressing it. Posters reveal their historical meaning more clearly if we pay attention to their visual characteristics as well as to their political intent. This book treats the poster both as art and as historical witness. Posters are not relegated to the secondary role of illustrating a historical text nor are they treated as autonomous aesthetic objects in a history of applied arts. Instead they are substantial components of a historical narrative that is made up of both image and text. The close interaction of words and posters drawn from Russia, central and western Europe, and the United States, opens fresh perspectives on a half century of war and revolution and constitutes a step toward a new kind of integrative history that conveys the past with unusual immediacy. Contents: Introduction: Posters and modern history --Note on the posters --Prologue: before 1914 --I. The First World War --The outbreak of war --The enemy --Combat --Self-Images --Appeals to serve --War loans --Food and industry --The end of the war --II. The Interwar Years --Revolutions --The Soviet Union --Germany and National Socialism --The Spanish Civil War --III. The Second World War --Early stages --The air war --The invasion of Russia --The new order --Home fronts --The United States at war --The last year --Epilogue: after 1945 --List of posters --Index of artists.ISBN: 0691032041 9780691032047.