Framework and Definitions

Framework

I analyzed the political cartoons and propaganda posters using a few key methods. First, I read literature about the three themes during each war. With that analysis in mind, I looked through the Musselman Library Special Collections’ political cartoons and propaganda posters collections. My analysis of the propaganda materials built on and was inspired by what was already said by Crawford1, White2, Honey3, Welch4, Silber5, Sillin6, James7, and Hart8.

Second, I posed questions about the consistencies that I was observing. For example, what was the role of war bonds during World War I and II? What about “careless talk”? These questions led me to do more concentrated research about specific propaganda campaigns and the current events that spurred them.

Finally, I looked at the posters both zoomed in and out. I first glanced at the posters to see what stood out visually. Then, after reading the literature mentioned above, I went back to posters. This time, I looked at each element of the poster and tried to connect it to an event, concern, or American institution I had been reading about.

Defining Propaganda

According to Maureen Honey, propaganda is “psychological manipulation and emotional appeal”.9

Welch outlines the goals of propaganda in modern warfare as the following:4

  • “mobilize hatred against the enemy”
  • “convince the population of the justness of one’s own cause”
  • “enlist the active support and cooperation of neutral countries”
  • “strengthen the support of one’s allies”

This project focuses on the first two goals listed.

Defining Patriotism

For this project, I define patriotism as a sense of duty to one’s country or community. During wartime, this sense of duty also involves pride in the national or community identity.

Propaganda posters defined citizenship and patriotism because they “nationalized, mobilized, and modernized civilian populations”7. They told the viewer what patriotism meant in that moment, and in doing so, they “proposed arguments for patriotic behavior”, as Meg Albrinck conveys7.

Robert Sherwood was director of the Overseas Branch of the Office of War Information and an important player in pre-WWII propaganda. He believed that “America’s propaganda should emphasize the strength of its institutions – its system of education, its culture, its social legislation, and its labor organizations”10. Sherwood’s argument is exposed in many propaganda posters; civilians are instructed to be patriotic by contributing to and having pride in these institutions.

What is Race Thinking?

Ideologies surrounding whiteness, racism, and white supremacy have shifted over time. The term “race thinking” seeks to understand how these ideologies have manifested in different ways and why they show up in the way that they do at the time that they do.

Historically, Americanness has been equated to whiteness, and whiteness is defined against others who are excluded from it. The Civil War political cartoons contain racist and dehumanizing portrayals of Black people and of the issue of slavery. The propaganda posters reflect whiteness as Americanness because the vast majority of posters issued by the government consisted of white people and were directed toward white people. In World War I, the Black community started privately publishing propaganda that addressed the needs and goals of the Black community.

“Race thinking”, from the perspective of sociology, also analyzes how other people of color are affected by racism and white supremacy. Asian Americans, for example, were depicted with violently racist caricatures in propaganda posters to solidify them as the enemy. During World War II, they were illustrated with yellow skin to set up a clear juxtaposition between Japanese soldiers and the white victim.

Finally “race thinking” addresses the fact that whiteness and race shift according to socio-political agendas. During World War I, Germans were racialized and depicted with racist imagery to convince the public that Germany was a threat. This is a common fatal stereotype about people of color, and it was used to shape public opinion.

Representation of Women

This theme looks at how women are represented in political cartoons and propaganda posters. Some leading questions in my analysis were:

  • Is the woman passive or active in the situation?
  • Is the woman the damsel in distress?
  • What type of clothing is the woman wearing? Is her clothing sexually suggestive?
  • Is the woman with a man?
  • What is the woman doing? Is she working? Is she cooking?
  • Does the woman appeal to the female viewer or male viewer?

These questions asked about how gender roles affected the way women were viewed, as well as if/how they were valued at the time of each war.

Role of Economics

This website considers a variety of factors that are summed up by the term “economics”. Most important is perhaps the financing of war. The government used war bonds during World War I and II for the money it couldn’t by other means like taxes. War bonds mobilized the home front, and were marketed as a symbol of patriotism.

Food shortages were also of much concern. Propaganda posters encouraged civilians to plant gardens in their own backyard to ease the tension of rationing. They also urged people on the home front to buy and cook with substitutes like corn so they could send easily transportable flour overseas to starving soldiers.

Additionally, the Civil War had a unique contribution to this theme. The Confederacy had to start their own country and economy. The collapse of its economy led to the Union’s victory, which underscores the importance of the economy during wartime.

Other aspects of the economy such as the workforce and the idea of the “American Dream” are also included under this theme. With men leaving the workforce to fit in the military, industries had to fill these vacant positions. Women were asked to work so that war production and domestic production could continue, a necessity for victory. The “American Dream” was also relevant to these posters. One of the ways the government advertised patriotism and victory was with family values. Imagery such as a big, smiling family or a nuclear family with a big house, a car, and a pet was used to sell the idea of war as well as war bonds.

  1. Albrecht, Donald, and Margaret Crawford. “Daily Life on the Home Front: Women, Blacks, and the Struggle for Public Housing.” World War II and the American Dream: How Wartime Building Changed A Nation, National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 90–143. [↩]
  2. White, Steven. World War II and American Racial Politics: Public Opinion, the Presidency, and Civil Rights Advocacy. CAMBRIDGE UNIV Press, 2019. [↩]
  3. Honey, Maureen. Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. The University of Massachusetts Press, 1984. [↩]
  4. Welch, David. World War II Propaganda Analyzing the Art of Persuasion during Wartime. ABC-CLIO, 2017. [↩] [↩]
  5. Silber, Nina. “‘A Woman’s War:’ Gender and Civil War Studies.” OAH Magazine of History, vol. 8, no. 1, 1993, pp. 11–13. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162919. Accessed 20 Jul. 2022. [↩]
  6. Sillin, Sarah. “Laughing at “Young Bull”: American Authority in Civil War Cartoons.” J19, vol. 8, no. 2, 2020, pp. 267-0_5,381. ProQuest, http://ezpro.cc.gettysburg.edu:2048/login. [↩]
  7. JAMES, PEARL, editor. Picture This: World War I Posters and Visual Culture. University of Nebraska Press, 2009. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1dgn3t0. Accessed 6 Jul. 2022. [↩] [↩] [↩]
  8. Hart, Justin. “‘IN TERMS OF PEOPLES RATHER THAN NATIONS’: WORLD WAR II PROPAGANDA AND CONCEPTIONS OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY.” The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front, edited by G. Kurt Piehler and Sidney Pash, Fordham University Press, 2010, pp. 68–98. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13wzx9d.7. Accessed 21 Jul. 2022. [↩]
  9. Honey, Maureen. Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II. The University of Massachusetts Press, 1984. [↩]
  10. Hart, Justin. “‘IN TERMS OF PEOPLES RATHER THAN NATIONS’: WORLD WAR II PROPAGANDA AND CONCEPTIONS OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY.” The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front, edited by G. Kurt Piehler and Sidney Pash, Fordham University Press, 2010, pp. 68–98. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13wzx9d.7. Accessed 21 Jul. 2022.y [↩]
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