WWI Propaganda Poster Analysis

Instructions Answer the following questions for each of the wartime propaganda posters: What is the objective behind the wartime propaganda poster? What wartime propaganda tools are used in the poster? Explain your reasoning.

#1 Americans were not eager to enter the war, and Americans of German ancestry tended to support Germany, not Britain and France. The government’s first task was to convince citizens that they must support the war effort without reservation. Here, a woman clad in the stars and stripes represents America and American liberty. Poster by James Montgomery Flagg, 1917.

#2 To finance the war, the U.S. Government borrowed money from Americans by selling “Liberty Bonds” that would be paid back with interest. The first bond drive fell short of its goals, though, and the government began an aggressive campaign to convince Americans to subscribe. This poster reminded people of the suffering of European children

#3 In this poster, a German soldier with menacing eyes and bloody fingers looms across the Atlantic.

#4 Children couldn’t afford liberty bonds, but to encourage them to support the war, the government sold war savings stamps worth 10 cents and 25 cents. Like war bonds, the stamps paid interest. In this poster, Uncle Sam teaches children a lesson not only about patriotism but about the importance of saving

#5 The United States Army was quite small in the spring of 1917. A draft was quickly established, but men were urged to enlist for service. This poster, showing a cavalry charge, portrayed military service as heroic.

#6 Men who stayed safe at home would be left out of the glory. Here, a man stays safe inside, left in the shadows, while victorious soldiers parade outside his window

#7 Even the smallest children were enlisted in the war effort. Wheat was needed for soldiers, and so children (and their mothers) were encouraged to eat other grains such as oatmeal, corn, and rice — and were reminded, like children everywhere, to clean their plates

#8 While England and France were depicted as “civilization,” Germany was shown as a “mad brute” — here, a giant, drooling gorilla weilding the club of German kultur (culture) and carrying the limp, half-naked body of a woman. As a result of propaganda like this, German Americans — many of whose ancestors had lived in America for centuries — faced persecution during the war.

#9 Military service offered young men the chance to travel the world and see places they could never otherwise have visited. Here, a young sailor, suitcase in hand, steps “ashore, on leave.”

#10 This poster played more vividly on the guilt of people on the home front. “This boy has made his last great sacrifice,” the caption reads. “Are we, as Americans, doing our part?”

#11 Children could work in gardens, too. A government program called the United States School Garden Army encouraged kids to feel that by gardening, they were fighting in France alongside the men in the trenches. Gardening, wrote President Wilson, “is just as real and patriotic an effort as the building of ships or the firing of cannon.”

#12 This famous portrayal of “Uncle Sam” first appeared during World War I