World Wars I & II: Propaganda & War in a Technologically Developed World
By the time the First and Second World Wars roll around, the western world was in the midst of an Industrial Revolution — mass production had reached a new level of sophistication. Printing evolved immensely and so had the average person’s ability to read. This increased the use of other viable modes of transmitting propaganda. Fabricated stories were promoted by widely read newspapers. Governments issued invented reports. Following the advent of radio and eventually television, war posters were all the rage. They often presented the public with an image that of an average person doing sometimes unbelievable extraordinary things, such as this woman who not only makes bombs for work and to support the war effort, she goes far beyond the call of duty and purchased war bonds — we can assume it is with the cash she earns as a bomb builder.