Propaganda: Truth and Lies in Times of Conflict

By Tony Husband

The best propaganda is made by the best artists. Posters have to be sharp, attractive and to the point, as well as exploiting ancient prejudices using techniques that sway opinion. They are designed to be understood in the blink of an eye from a distance of at least six feet and, if they don't appeal directly to the emotions, they should immediately be torn up and thrown away.

This book features propaganda posters and cartoons by some of the world's greatest artists, including portraits of Napoleon by Gillray and Ingrès, Edward VII by Jean Veber, the drooling gorilla of German militarism by H R Hopps, Uncle Sam by James Montgomery Flagg, Hitler in several guises, and so much more.

Within these pages, you'll find extraordinary art with a job to do. And from these ingenious images, you'll gain unique insight into the cultures that produced them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
• Release date: Mar 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784043384

Book preview

Propaganda: Truth and Lies in Times of Conflict, edited by Tony Husband

CONTENTS

Introduction

The Derivation of ‘Propaganda’

How to Win Friends and Influence People

World War I

Between the Wars: The Seeds of Conflict

World War II

Same Old Song

Picture Credits

Caricature of ‘Boney’ (Napoleon) following his lengthy and very public tirade against British policy to Lord Whitworth, the ambassador in Paris, 1803

INTRODUCTION

A strange thing happens in wartime. Individuality is threatened and civilians, though far from the front line, are no longer able to drift along like they did before. War consumes everything. And from every available hoarding, propaganda starts barking out its orders. Join up, dress down, be like dad keep mum, talk less, save more, keep the wheels turning, give them both barrels, dig for victory – slogans you will never ever forget.

Wars aren’t just fought between soldiers. Each nation has to make the most of every resource as it mobilizes itself for a life-and-death struggle. That’s where posters come in, historically the cheap and effective means governments have used to put their message across.

What was it like to put together a wartime poster? I picture the following. I’m an illustrator-cum-cartoonist living in the suburbs of London around 1941. I’m struggling, there’s not much work available, so I have to double up by working in my brother’s small-arms factory in Shoreditch.

A different take on Napoleon by Ingrès (1806). In direct contrast to the ‘warts and all’ portrait, this painting is all about the trappings of power. Ingrès made no attempt to capture a true likeness of Napoleon (indeed the face is very like his own) and borrowed from paintings of a much earlier age to show a ‘man who was born to lead’. He does this by invoking such figures as Julius Caesar (through the golden laurel wreath) and Holy Roman Emperors (he is holding props that associate him with Charlemagne and Charles V). The portrait struck a false note with the post-Revolutionary French public who had no desire to see the hated aristocracy replaced by a new breed of gilded tyrants

One day there’s a knock at my studio door. I open it and a man in a battered suit is there to whisk me off through empty, rain-soaked streets to the Ministry of Information in central London. His car is a commandeered Wolsey with a fat white stripe painted round the bumpers and mudguards to make it visible in the black-out.

On arrival, I’m led down corridors to a dimly lit room where I see two men in the shadows deep in discussion. They stop talking as I enter, and the man with the handlebar moustache steps forward. He shakes my hand, introduces himself and starts to brief me. In the next twenty minutes, he furnishes me with a task, a slogan and a deadline – two weeks, it’s all a terrible hurry. He also tells me where he wants the poster to be displayed, in this case dockyards and naval bases. The rest is up to me as long as I let him see the sketches and early drafts.

‘Tall Joseph’ (1914): propaganda takes many different forms, some of them quite odd. Because of his height, Joseph William Schippers, a member of the Kaiser’s bodyguard, was exhibited like a circus freak. Here, the Kaiser introduces him to Franz Joseph, the Austrian Emperor, Czar Nicholas II of Russia, George V of England and one unknown leader. Schippers stood 2.12m tall (7ft) – or 2.39m (7ft 10in) in his boots and helmet – and received double rations plus a litre of milk each day. Nonetheless, his size is greatly exaggerated, which would have chimed with the Kaiser’s expansionist ambitions

When I ask him what the fee will be, he coughs, mumbles something about patriotism and discreetly reminds me that being an artist is not a reserved occupation, so when my age group gets

Reviews for Propaganda

[jmkemp-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

good selection of posters with commentary on the imagery used.