Aesthetics, Ethics, and Poster Art in World War I France and the United States

After briefly reviewing current scholarship on illustrated posters, their state of conservation in key archives, and their utility as a source for writing history, this article contrasts the mechanisms of poster production and distribution in France and the United States, then highlights key differences in posters’ form and discursive content. Whereas artists and government officials in the United States embraced the direct transfer of commercial advertising strategies to war posters, cultivating sensationalist motifs that emphasized American moral superiority, demonized the German enemy, and eroticized warfare, the French created a distinctly humanistic style of war poster that rejected prewar advertising norms in favor of a somber realism emphasizing the suffering, dignity, and commitment to duty of soldiers and civilians alike.