Bankrolling the Apocalypse

Compelling poster and postcard images created by great graphic artists were used to raise the money needed by combatant nations to fight World War I. This book closely considers thirteen superb examples. The artists who created them faced a challenge: the images had to motivate citizens to buy war bonds while at the same time avoiding overt reminders of the fact that with each purchase bond-buyers were effectively voting to continue a four-year conflict of unparalleled horror. The motifs employed in these images differ in the ways in which that challenge is approached, but each example reflects, to a greater or lesser extent, the artist's circumspection in his undertaking to sell war bonds to a war-weary population.