The Art of Persuasion.

The Weekend Wall Street Journal, that intelligent but cheerily fascist newspaper, had an interesting article about propaganda in the 20th Century. I'm cutting and pasting the entire thing here because WSJ firewalls prevent the riff-raff from seeing the paper.

"Human beings have long used art to try to influence one another. The new book "Propaganda Prints: A History of Art in the Service of Social and Political Change" by Colin Moore (A&C Black/Bloomsbury Academic & Professional) surveys the field, from ancient Sumeria to the present.

The Roman emperor Augustus issued coins emblazoned with messages like "Peace and Victory." And Benjamin Franklin created his famous "Join or Die" woodcut of a severed snake in 1754 to plead for colonial unity.

Propaganda from the 20th century spans a wide range of world-changing events, from China's Cultural Revolution to the Cold War. Here is a look at some of the book's posters from the conflicts and public campaigns of the past hundred years."

Here's a selection of prints printed in the article.