First World War Posters

by Rosalind Ormiston, Gary Sheffield (Foreword)

2014 will mark 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War. First World War Posters is a striking and insightful foray into what this conflict meant to people all over the world and how their governments used poster art as a powerful appeal to everyone in society. Featuring fantastic posters from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and Europe, the human angle really comes through. With a fresh and thoughtful introduction to the war and its posters, the book goes on to showcase the key works in all their glory.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Art, World War I

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Carson Shaw]

The main attraction to this book is the 99 full-page reproductions of WW1 posters, and those are each presented with the year they were made, sometimes the artist, and the printer at the time. That is why I bought the book and I am satisfied with those 99 pages.

There are 32 pages at the beginning of the book that have text giving a very light overview of the topics covered by the posters, and this is where I feel that the author has made some odd choices. The text gives some very light information about WW1 and frequently makes reference to posters that appear later in the book, it would have made much more sense to have relevant text alongside each full-size poster rather than having them in separate areas of the book. The author also has many (roughly 40) of the same posters from the full-size section of the book printed at smaller scale with the text; but even here when there is a mini version of a poster it is sometimes separated from the text that talks about it.

So the author has repeated many posters twice or more, but also talks in the text about posters that don't appear at all in the book. If you're interested enough in WW1 to buy a book like this, you definitely won't learn anything new from the text section of the book except for where it talks about the artists, but you'll most likely be reading that descriptive text without the image being on the same page.

In the end an Anglo-centric collection (there are zero from the Central Powers and about five from the French) of posters with the relevant information for them organized in the most inefficient way possible makes this book a lot less than it could have been.

[Puhnner]

Have read a few books on World War I this year, a subject that until now, I had little familiarity with. This book is quite a primer on Allied WWI propaganda, but would love to see the same content from Germany's/Central Powers' side. Most likely, equally horrid and repulsive to contemplate.

Have not read this book in a long while - War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War
by John W. Dower, though I remember it now with the subject matter much more disturbing, repellent, vile, and profoundly sad.

[John]

Fantastic book. Very extensive analysis followed by well-organized full colour plates.

Also, sure am glad I didn't have to live through that time. Powerful messages to get you to go to a horrible place.

[Derryn]

Fascinating read, although the feminist me hate some of these posters I find them absolutely fascinating in the war effort!
🖤🖤🖤🖤