James Taylor 
Your Country Needs You : The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster 
The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster

The iconic image by Alfred Leete of Lord Kitchener with outstretched hand and finger, exhorting you to ‘do your bit’, is a design classic and has been repeatedly imitated worldwide. In the run-up to the World War I anniversary, Your Country Needs YOU celebrates the magnificent artwork of Leete and his fellow designers, and explores their legacy. Featuring colour reproductions of propaganda posters and drawing on fresh analysis of the archives, this book challenges received historical wisdom about these hugely popular and enduring images, and reveals a surprising new history that is no less than groundbreaking.

Table of Content

Introduction. Chapter 1, ‘Your Country Needs YOU’: Separating Fact from Fiction. Chapter 2, Weapons of Mass Persuasion: Origins, Development and Design of British Recruitment Posters in World War I. Chapter 3, Alfred Leete’s Life and Achievements, and Influence of ‘Your Country Needs YOU’ in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. Chapter 4, James Montgomery Flagg: ‘I Want YOU For U.S. Army’. Chapter 5, Leete and Flagg: Poster Icons from the World Wars to the Present Day. References. Picture Credits. Acknowledgements. About the Author.

About the author

James Taylor is the author of Careless Talk Costs Lives (a study of World War II propaganda artist Fougasse), and several other art history books and articles for specialist magazines. He is an art historian who has worked at Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers and as a curator at the National Maritime Museum. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he lives in Hampshire.