The Propaganda Front: Postcards from the Era of World Wars

The first comprehensive exploration of postcards used as propaganda on all sides of the major military and political conflicts of the twentieth century, including World Wars I and II A Russian Socialist worker raises the red flag. Adoring crowds greet Hitler and Mussolini. Uncle Sam orders Americans to enlist. These images and many more circulated by the millions on postcards intended to change minds and inspire actions around the time of the two World Wars. Whether produced by government propaganda bureaus, opportunistic publishers, aid organizations, or resistance movements, postcards conveyed their messages with striking graphics, pithy slogans, and biting caricatures - and in a uniquely personal format. The more than 350 cards reproduced in full colour in this book advocate for political causes and celebrate war efforts on all sides of the major conflicts of the first half of the twentieth century. The accompanying text shows how a ubiquitous form of communication served increasingly sophisticated campaigns in an age of propaganda, and highlights the postcards collected here as both priceless historical documents and masterworks of graphic design.

Lynda Klich is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Art History and Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, CUNY. Benjamin Weiss is Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Visual Culture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Juliana Kreinik is an art and photography historian with a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, who has taught at Pratt Institute, Pace University, and SUNY, New Paltz. Anna Jozefacka, an art and architectural historian, is a postdoctoral Fellow at the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.