How does a poster persuade?

Lesson plan

3 class periods of about 45 minutes.

1. Day 1 · 45 min

   One finger, one word

   1. 5 minutes: Open I Want You for U.S. Army (James Montgomery Flagg) in Hearth Library and show the poster. Students look in silence for one minute, then list everything they notice.
   2. Read the History tab together. Flagg first drew the picture for a magazine cover in July 1916, the pointing finger borrowed from a British recruiting image of Lord Kitchener from 1914, and the blank space at the bottom was left for each town's recruiting office.
   3. 10 minutes: As a class, list every choice Flagg made: one figure, the direct gaze, the pointing finger, the colors, the word YOU, the blank space for a local address.
   4. 15 minutes: Each group sketches a quick version with one choice changed, such as Uncle Sam looking away or YOU printed in black. Groups hold up their sketches beside the poster and the class decides which change weakens it most, giving reasons.
   5. Exit: each student writes what the poster asks the viewer to do, and which one choice does most to make the request feel personal.

2. Day 2 · 45 min

   Lending money for the war

   1. 5 minutes: Read the encyclopedia article on war loans and war bonds, linked from the unit page. Check the key terms loan, subscribe and interest.
   2. 15 minutes: Show We'll Get Them! (Abel Faivre) with the words covered. Students list what the picture alone tells them about the soldier and the moment. Then uncover the words and note what the slogan and "Subscribe." add.
   3. 15 minutes: Show Help Us Win! (Fritz Erler). Groups mark three details, such as the helmet, the gas mask, the grenades, the barbed wire or the face, and write one line on what each tells a person at home. Then read the History tab on the turnip winter and choose the detail most likely to move a hungry, reluctant lender.
   4. Discuss the two slogans: Faivre's says "We'll get them!" and Erler's says "Help us win!" Who seems to be speaking in each, and to whom? How does that change what each poster asks of the viewer?

3. Day 3 · 45 min

   How posters make their case

   1. 15 minutes: In pairs, make a chart of the three posters with five rows: what it asks people to do, who it speaks to, what the picture shows, what the words add, and what feeling it seems to want.
   2. 10 minutes: Open the Questions tab on each poster and read the answers on who made it, when, and why. Then discuss what the posters can tell us reliably about 1916 and 1917, and what they cannot tell us about the soldiers who fought.
   3. Compare Flagg's Uncle Sam, who points straight out of the poster, with Faivre's soldier, who does not look at the viewer. Discuss how each poster places the person looking at it.
   4. 15 minutes: Each student answers the unit question, What did wartime posters ask people to do, and how did they make their case?, in a paragraph that names at least two posters and points to specific details in each.

Read these sources

In this order. Each opens in Hearth Library with the original beside plain English, and a History tab on who made it and how far to trust it.

1. 1

   We'll Get Them!

   Abel Faivre, 1916. Accessible.

   Only a few words on the poster; needs only the note on the loan.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   loan

   money lent to someone, here by citizens to their government, usually in return for interest

   subscribe

   to sign up for something; here, to agree to lend money to the government

   interest

   money paid every year to a person who has lent money, as a reward for lending it

   bond

   a paper a government gives in return for a loan, promising to pay interest

   slogan

   a short, easy-to-remember phrase used to spread a message

   infantryman

   a soldier who fights on foot

   1. Comprehension What does the poster ask the viewer to do, and for which loan?
   2. Analysis The slogan says "We'll get them!" but never says who "them" are, and the poster gives no facts about the loan. How do the picture and the slogan work together to make a case for lending money?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Faivre made this poster for a government loan campaign in 1916. What can it tell us reliably about France in that year, and what can it not tell us about the war or about the soldiers who fought it?
   4. Connection Look at Help Us Win! by Fritz Erler, a German war loan poster from early 1917. Both posters show a single soldier and ask people to lend money. Compare the two soldiers' faces, poses, and surroundings. What feeling does each poster seem to want from the people looking at it?

   Activity Students first cover the words and list what the picture alone tells them about the soldier and the moment. Then they uncover the words and note what the slogan and "Subscribe." add. In pairs, they write the government's request in one plain sentence and compare it with Faivre's poster, explaining which would move more people to lend and why.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

2. 2

   I Want You for U.S. Army

   James Montgomery Flagg, 1917. Accessible.

   One short sentence in English; no notes needed.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   Uncle Sam

   a figure of an old man in a top hat, dressed in the colors of the flag, used to stand for the United States

   recruiting station

   an office where people sign up to join the armed forces

   recruit

   to find and sign up new people, here new soldiers

   preparedness

   being ready ahead of time; here, getting the country ready in case it went to war

   goatee

   a small beard on the chin

   copyright

   the legal right to control who may copy and sell a picture or text

   1. Comprehension What does the poster ask the viewer to do, and where does it send them?
   2. Analysis The poster uses very few words. How do Uncle Sam's finger, his eyes, and the color of the word YOU help make the message feel personal?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Flagg first drew this picture for a magazine cover in 1916, before the United States entered the war, and the Army later used it for recruiting. Flagg himself called it the most famous poster in the world. How does this history affect how we read the poster, and how far should we trust what Flagg said about it?
   4. Connection Look at We'll Get Them! by Abel Faivre, a French loan poster from 1916. Flagg's Uncle Sam points straight out of the poster, while Faivre's soldier does not look at the viewer. How does each poster place the person looking at it, and how does that fit what each one asks people to do?

   Activity As a class, students list every choice Flagg made, such as one figure, the direct gaze, the pointing finger, the colors, and the blank space for a local address. Each group then sketches a quick version with one choice changed, for example Uncle Sam looking away or YOU printed in black. The class compares the sketches with the poster and decides which change weakens it most, giving reasons.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

3. 3

   Help Us Win!

   Fritz Erler, 1917. Accessible.

   Only a few words on the poster; needs only the note on the war loan.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   war loan

   money that citizens lent to their government to pay for the war, in return for interest and the promise of repayment

   subscribe

   to sign up for something; here, to agree to lend money to the government

   interest

   money paid to a person who has lent money, as a reward for lending it

   gas mask

   a mask that protects the wearer from breathing poison gas

   barbed wire

   wire with sharp points along it, strung in front of trenches to slow down attackers

   turnip winter

   the hungry winter of 1916–17 in Germany, when many people had little to eat

   inflation

   a rise in prices that makes money worth less and less

   1. Comprehension What does the poster ask people at home to do, and what does the soldier have with him?
   2. Analysis The poster appeared after the turnip winter, when people were slow to lend more. Why might Erler have shown one soldier's face close up instead of a battle scene?
   3. Analysis (reliability) The Imperial Treasury Office began hiring well-known artists for the loan posters after an earlier loan raised only modest sums. Whose message is this poster, then? What can it tell us reliably about soldiers at the front, and what can it not?
   4. Connection Look at We'll Get Them! by Abel Faivre, a French loan poster from 1916. Its slogan says "We'll get them!"; Erler's says "Help us win!" Who seems to be speaking in each slogan, and to whom? How does that difference change what each poster asks of the viewer?

   Activity In small groups, students find and mark three details in the picture, such as the helmet, the gas mask, the grenades, the barbed wire, or the soldier's face. For each, they write one line on what it tells a person at home about life at the front. Then they read the headnote on the turnip winter and decide which detail would most move a hungry, reluctant lender, and defend their choice to the class.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

To finish

Come back to the question: What did wartime posters ask people to do, and how did they make their case? Ask students to answer it with evidence from at least two of the sources, and to say which source they trust most and why.

Standards

Students read picture and slogan together, compare posters from three countries, and ask who made each poster and for what wartime need.

Go further

Encyclopedia

Posters in the First World War · War loans and war bonds

Collection

Every source in Great War Propaganda