Customer Reviews

You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

In-freaking-credible! Micah has taken WW2 posters and detourned them into new messages against the creeping fascism the USA finds itself in today. The typical visions of charging soldiers, the Statue of Liberty, and various patriotic images are framed with ironically Orwellian slogans or calls to rebel and protest. Perfect for enlarging as protest signs, or copying and leaving on a public bulletin board or under an SUV's windshield wiper.

Next to each poster is a text written by the Center for Constitutional Rights, giving further detail to the message of the poster.

Anyone even remotely interested in curent politics, or political activity should buy this book. Better still, reproduce the images (something the artist encourages in the inroduction) so others can be enlightened.

Buy this book...while you still can!

Like many thinking Americans of all political ideologies, I was both horrified by the events of September 11th, and the response of my elected officials.

Instantly, a public policy originating against suspected terrorist funder Osama Bin Laden morphed into an assasination attempt against Saddam Hussein, and then just as quickly an unexplained general urge to impose our goverment on the Iraqi people, who (despite the abuses under Saddam) do not seem as enthusiastic about our dictates.

That the Bush administration's intervention rationale changed as quickly as the weather was convienently discarded by a 'liberal' media more enamored with fawning descriptions of 'patrotism' than raising difficult questions which had the very real potential of casting a shadow on the American political system itself. Because many of today's news anchors came of age during Vietnam themselves (and learned the administration response is not always truthful) the ommission is all the more upsetting.

I also realized however well-intentioned my politics, they would be difficult to communicate in a soundbite driven economy where even the most initally open-minded of swing voters becomes quickly ailenated by lengthy political tomes. Thus, even if a majority of citizens actually doubted the administration, their ability to provide memorable soundbies quickly reassured the same audiences. This book is an excellent tool for beating the far right at it's own game.

The updated images are intentionally culled from 1940's-1950's propaganda posters, ironically a time when patriotism was also blindly practiced. In those days, the fastest way to defeat your opponent was to accuse them of un-American behavior, a frightening trend returning in our own era. Government abuse of constitutional rights is allowed as long as good citizens remain silent and do nothing.

Wright has cleverly rengineered some entries to directly appeal to the self-humor of anti-war protestor's. Social change by nature is hard and prolonged, but taking a little time out to engage in sardonic humor at one's self helps lighten the long journey ahead.

Although there are dozens of national and local anti-war organizations, this book would be especially helpful for groups (new ones, and/or students) who want to protest 21st century colonization without blowing their own budgets. The professionally edited images arrive ready for modifications (an explicit suggestion within the book) thereby helping to ensure American democracy is more than a slogan, and something we actually practice ourselves.

These posters speak for themselves. Every conscious American will love this book.

...

This book of spot-on political posters really seems to have polarised reviewers so it must be doing something right. Of the two hundred that Micah Wright has produced (you can see them all on his website, antiwarposters) forty have been selected to go with some very relevant text from the Center for Constitutional Rights.

I think these remixed posters work so well because the author has taken the trouble to put his headlines in the same typography as the originals (which are reproduced in the back of the book) and to see historical graphics blended with a contemporary political point really hits you between the eyes. The surprising thing to me is that this simple, brilliant design idea has not been done before but maybe it was the events of the last two years that galvanised one person to put his point-of-view across with such deadly accuracy.

I was familiar with Wright's work at "The Propaganda Remix Project" and this is the result of that work in progress.

It amuses me to see the knee-jerk responses from the Terribly Serious, both left and right, to work of this sort.

One of the first signs of mindless fanaticism is the loss of your sense of humor. If you can look at this stuff and laugh, as a neocon, you're still safe to be around. If you look at it as a liberal and start punching the air in solidary, you ain't. :)

There's PLENTY of posters that could be "remixed" in the other direction; and I hope that Wright will get to it soon. With any luck, the next administration will give him ample reason to do so.

Leave the in-depth political analysis to the anal-retentive - don't criticize it for being what it never was meant to be. This book is a wonderful ironic comment about patriotism, popular culture and your place in it.

Yeah, yeah -- this book contains brilliant reinterpretations of classic propaganda art. Absolutely excellent stuff within these pages. It makes the mind wonder what one talented man and a computer can do. Micah Wright is an excellent source of anti-establishment humor. The sad thing is that so many blind people sit back and type posts railing about his unpatriotic or "communist" (live in the 60's much?) attitude.

Some naysayers are ignorant of anything but what the White House Resident (or Fox News) tells them. They don't look deep into the issues that surround them. They see only what they want to see. They want people to die for their cars. They want people to die for their God. They want people to die for crimes committed by others.
Blind blind people. Ignore the ignorant negative reviews. If someone genuinely does not like this book (and there will be a few, I'm sure) take that into account before you buy.

But ignore the chaff; they're just that: CHAFF.

Note to those who work in bookstores: If I found out that a bookstore employee trashed a whole shipment of books that they didn't agree with. I'd make sure they were fired. This is America. Welcome -- read the rules before you decide to stay. Pay special attention to RULE NUMBER ONE: it's called the First Amendment. It's all about the freedom of speech. Some people tend to ignore that one while they're stroking their guns.

Buy "Back the Attack! Remixed War Propaganda". It's an excellent addition to any library. I've got mine on my coffee table to impress my conservative friends. I'm sure they'll love it too.

This fine book of very timely political art hits it right on the head. In the best tradition of activists and revolutionaries everywhere, you sometimes must point out the obvious to those who are blind to it. The truth is not owned by the right or the left, the doves or the hawks. The truth is the truth.

The sons of rich men don't fight wars and die.

All politicians lie. That is their job. Sometimes they lie in your benefit and then you are ok with it.

A people divided is a people under control.

We are all created equal but that changes as soon as you're born. All are not treated equal.

Our great country was formed by revolutionaries fighting some of the same things we are dealing with today. The differnce is they were informed, hungry for knowledge and change, and willing to make a sacrifice. Most of us today are none of these things.

The first reviewer of this book was missing the point. This book is not a criticism of our citizens in the armed forces. We all owe them more than we can repay. This book questions your blind patriotism where you do what your told and follow no matter what. Where any protest or criticism of our government is to be dealt with. (Sounds like what we are supposedly fighting against) It questions your one sided view of the world where America is always right and we always know what is best for everyone else. It questions whether we really are a democracy anymore or just an empty shell that's been hollowed out.

Real patriots in a real democracy hold their government and it agents accountable and make sure they are responsible to all of us and not just a chosen few.

No, this book is not for everyone. I immediately agree. On the other hand, if you saw the humour in The Onion's "Our Dumb Century", you will probably find it here as well.

This book parodies the style, the language, and the look of all those posters of the WWII and McCarthy era that urged us to back our troops, save tin cans, and watch for Communists under our beds. The target is now, quite obviously, the adventures of the Bush administration. Personally I find Wright's style veyr humourous, albeit overstated. Then again, given the level of public political discussion in this nation (Coulter, Savage, and O'Reilly representing the Right; Franken and Moore representing the Left) I think this book is fairly typical. Reduce complex issues to a buzz phrase, go for graphics, make sweeping generalizations -- this is what passes for political discourse anymore. If you can't sum up complex problems in 5 seconds and have someone say "Ditto!" to it, it is too long winded for many people's attention spans.

This is sad.

That having been said, Wright has done what the commentators on the Left of the political spectrum tend to do best of late: skewer their political adversaries with humour. It is very dark humour, very dark indeed. Often this has been the recourse of the underdog at any period -- make the opposition look ridiculous and the whole dialectic changes.

This is not a book for the easily offended, but give it a thumb-through at your local bookstore.

Personally, I am buying copies of it for three members of my family with senses of humour that fit with something like "Dr. Strangelove".

It must be the Judo.

I've always been impressed when someone can reverse an attacker's own technique and throw him with it.

The author has done this taking old propaganda art and changing it just a little so that its new message stands out even more sharply. Micah Wright's message seems harsh, reptetitive and maybe a bit bitter. Fair enough. He's an elite, blooded Army Ranger who lost his innocence when he saw atrocities performed in his country's name. Some soldiers make their peace with this. Others become angry. He became angry.

But this is a minor criticsim.

The message should be welcome to civil libertarians and lovers of freedom from all parts of the political spectrum. The underlying messages are simple. By pushing the country in to an unneccessary war the government has betrayed its soldiers. By creating a climate of fear and paranoia they are destroying the freedoms which make America America.

In short, there is a very good chance that our current leaders are involving us in another WWII, but with America as the Axis.

Scary stuff.

The fifth American understands.

BACK THE ATTACK! is a visual essay on the absurdity of US foreign policy, and a captivating exercise in free speech.

Lets hope this book opens the eyes of the other four.