A Summons To Comradeship: World War I and II Posters
Poster art shaped and reflected the nature of total war in the first half of the twentieth century, and remains a rich primary source for examining the political, military, social, and cultural history of World War I and World War II. This website provides a database of close to 6,000 of these posters. Posters from the U.S. constitute the bulk of the collection, followed by posters from Great Britain, and then France, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Italy, and Germany.
Descriptions are keyword searchable, and there are also categories for browsing. Fifteen posters under "Civilian participation" represent one of the key components of "total war": full participation of citizens both at the front and at home. Posters can be used to examine the ways in which citizens on the "home front" were drawn into the war effort, as well as messages about gender and class. Other subjects include organizations, war-related social groups, and individual political leaders.