Customer Reviews

Posters. Propaganda and Persuasion in Election Campaigns Around the World and Through History

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This is an excellent book, carefully researched, well-written, and informative. Seidman gives readers a fascinating look at the history of visual campaign materials, both in the US and internationally. An abundance of visual examples illustrate the text and demonstrate not only trends but also cultural differences.

As a scholarly book, Posters, Propaganda, and Persuasion is quite accessible for advanced undergraduates and equally suitable for inclusion in a graduate-level course. Students of visual rhetoric and political science, in particular, will benefit from reading Seidman's book. Outside of the classroom, anyone with an interest in poster design, political communication, or rhetoric more broadly will enjoy the book.

This is more than just a pretty book about art, or graphics; much more. Seidman manages to give a fascinating glimpse of history throughout much of the world, done so deftly through a lense of political persuasion and social movements. Of course, there are abundant amounts of incredible and often beautiful posters; I marked over 20 of them, trying to find my favorite, and each time "topping" a previous selection. I was particularly intrigued by the audaciousness of the British and French offerings, some sinking (or rising?) to shockingly caustic negativity that makes our modern campaign propaganda seem tame. It was fascinating to see the strategy of poster design and distribution in countries where political television advertising is restricted. There is also plenty of good insight into our own political marketing system and how modern media has affected poster design and distribution in the U.S.

Whether you are into history, politics, rhetoric, art, graphics, or sociology, this well written work is a must read and probably one you'll return to again and again as political "machines" around the world cycle and recharge their grand election propaganda strategies.

This is an excellent & scholarly book. It focuses on campaign posters in the U.S., but also covers other countries. Very well written & highly informative. Shows a great amount of research & thought. 5 stars.