Chapter 26 Links to the Past

The Links to the Past on this CD are meant to provide additional information about the period covered in this chapter. These links are not intended to match the Links to the Past feature in your text.

The Power of Persuasion: Poster Art form the Second World War

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C., is the repository for official U.S. government records. Thousands of historical researchers from around the world use its holdings each year. In 1994-1995 NARA presented an exhibit of U.S. government posters from the Second World War. Later, NARA’s online “exhibit hall” featured 33 poster images. These war posters employed psychological methods pioneered by American advertisers to mobilize the American people for war. Analyze the various techniques of persuasion exemplified in these posters and consider the following questions.

1. Examine the posters in the sections called “Man the Guns,” “It’s a Woman’s War Too,” and “United We Win.” How do the images support or complicate the discussion in this chapter of men’s and women’s gender roles and of wartime racial issues?

2. During the first 21 months of war, military censors withheld all photographs showing dead American soldiers. Later, as the war turned in favor of the Allies, more graphic posters of battlefield deaths were allowed to appear in magazines, newspapers, and war posters. After thinking about the possible emotional impact made by two such posters in the section called “He Knew the Meaning of Sacrifice,” advance your ideas about why such a change in policy might have been made.

3. Consider the posters in the section “He’s Watching You.” Why do you think the government produced so many posters emphasizing the dangers of “careless talk”? What might be the broad repercussions of such messages of fear and distrust?

4. Describe and evaluate the role of government propaganda in the Second World War.

Student Name:
Student e-mail:

Faculty Name:
Faculty e-mail: