Flagg, James Montgomery, artist. “I want you for U.S. Army: Nearest Recruiting Station.” Poster. C1917. From Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. No. 9 1 print (poster). https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96507165/.
The Uncle Sam Army poster is an iconic image, and can be used for students to practice both visual and rhetorical analysis techniques. It would pair well with books, essays, and poems about World War I, as well as books that focus on the effects of propaganda, such as George Orwell’s 1984.
War poster with the famous phrase “I want you for U. S. Army” shows Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the viewer in order to recruit soldiers for the American Army during World War I. The printed phrase "Nearest recruiting station" has a blank space below to add the address for enlisting.
The Uncle Sam character, long a representation of the United States, was used as a recruiting propaganda tool for World War I. Flagg’s poster is one of the most famous representations of Uncle Sam.
- What is the purpose of propaganda, and how does it affect its intended audience?
- How do ethos, pathos, and logos work in visual media?
- How do symbolism and visual images convey persuasive techniques?
- What is the first item you notice on this poster? Why do you think you notice it?
Texas ELAR TEKS and Common Core State Standards
TEKS E3.8C - evaluate the author’s use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes
- Students should be able to observe, reflect, and question the features of propaganda in order to determine what the artist’s purpose was when creating it.
CC.RI.9-10.6 - Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
- Review or introduce ethos, pathos, and logos with students to see which appeals are noticeable in the piece.
CC.RI.9-10.7 - Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g. a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
- Teachers could pair the image with poems, letters, and essays from the same time period to see how the tone changes or stays the same.
CC.RI.9-10.9 - Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g. Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts.
- Students should be able to discuss the legacy of the Uncle Sam poster and compare/contrast how it was originally received with how they perceive it today.
- Have students begin with the Library of Congress Teacher’s Guide for Analyzing Photographs & Prints and discuss what they observed, reflected on, and questioned related to the image. Then, have students develop a research question based on their observations that encourages them to discover more information about the context and effect of the poster. For example, students could research the background of Uncle Sam before World War I, find out about the artist’s other works, or how many citizens volunteered to go fight in the war.
- Pair the US Army poster with the poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen, a World War I British soldier. Have students compare and contrast tone, rhetorical appeals, etc. between the two and discuss the different points of view presented in each work.
- ReadWriteThink has a full lesson (Argument, Persuasion, or Propaganda?) with guiding questions for analyzing World War II posters that can be adapted for the 1917 poster here.
- CommonLit has a Target Lesson entitled Finding the Meaning of Unknown Words with "Propaganda: Battling for the Mind" that goes over the elements of propaganda and uses this poster as an example to directly tie-in.
- War can always be a challenging topic for some students and families, especially if tied to current global events. Specifically for World War I, teaching about the conditions and violence that the soldiers experienced can be gruesome for younger students.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- Learning for Justice has resources for educators discussing war in classrooms.
- Together we win: Another World War I poster; however, this one focuses on community and the team versus the individual.
- It's a woman's war too! Join the WAVES: From World War II, this propaganda poster shows one of women’s contributions to war efforts.
- Literature Featuring Propaganda Techniques and Themes from ReadWriteThink has several suggested novels, short stories, plays, and movies that could also pair with a unit discussing and analyzing propaganda.
- Uncle Sam origins and background from the National Museum of American History.
- The Library of Congress has a full lesson plan for teaching about World War I for any teachers wanting to continue beyond the poster and propaganda.