We seek to inform as well as to celebrate. The best posters\nabout American workers and the jobs at which they labor make up a\nvisually fascinating body of work that rewards our attention. The\nposters were produced with a dual purpose: to entertain and to\ninform. They were also vehicles for working people to present\nthemselves visually, which is rarely as straightforward as it might\nseem because the labor force itself is not monolithic. Nor are the\nposters about just paid or wage labor. They repeatedly demonstrate\nthat labor issues include both the workplace and the outside\ncommunity and often portray families and neighbors, not just fellow\nworkers.-from Agitate! Educate! Organize! In Agitate! Educate!\nOrganize!, Lincoln Cushing and Timothy W. Drescher share their vast\nknowledge about the rich graphic tradition of labor posters. Lavish\nfull-color reproductions of more than 250 of the best posters that\nhave emerged from the American labor movement ensure that readers\nwill want to return again and again to this visually fascinating\ntreasury of little-known images from the American past. Some of the\nposters were issued by government programs and campaigns; some were\ndevised by unions as recruiting tools or strike announcements;\nothers were generated by grassroots organizations focused on a\nparticular issue or group of workers-all reveal much about the\ndiverse experiences of working people in the United States.\nAmerican labor posters are widely scattered, difficult to locate,\nand rarely archived. Cushing and Drescher examined several thousand\nsuch images in the course their research, guaranteeing a truly\nrepresentative selection. The presentation of the posters is\nthematic, with a brief history of activist graphic media followed\nby chapters on Dignity and Exploitation; Health and Safety; Women;\nRace and Civil Rights; War, Peace and Internationalism; Solidarity\nand Organizing; Strikes and Boycotts; Democracy, Voting, and\nPatriotism; History, Heroes, and Martyrs; and Culture. Along with\nthe stunning color images, the text contributes to a much deeper\nunderstanding of the politics, history, artistry, and impact of\nthis genre of activist art and the importance of the labor movement\nin the transformation of American society over the course of the\ntwentieth century. For more information about this book, visit\nwww.docspopuli.org/ArtWorks.html .
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