What did YOU do in the Great war daddy?, 18 Mar 2008
I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

What did YOU do in the Great war daddy?, 18 Mar 2008
I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

Ephemeral fervor, 03 Feb 2008
I was intrigued to read in the intro of this excellent book that the posters shown were printed in quantities of between five thousand and a hundred thousand and mostly had a rather short lifespan so we must be grateful to Sergo Grigorian for having the foresight and enthusiasm to create his collection.

I thought the early posters, from the 1918 onwards, are the most fascinating. There are several in the best Constructivist tradition, page fifty-four has a stunning typographic one designed by Sorbonski or page seventy-two with a movie poster showing a painting of two revolutionary peasants using a machine gun integrated into display headlines and text. However as you look through the pages the graphic style, especially after 1945, slowly morphs into safe predictable State style with plenty of happy children and contemporary versions of Stakhanovites leading the workers into the dazzling future.

The last book section with posters from 1965 to 2001 do show however a rather wide graphic style with strong abstracts, even a bit of pop art, photo montage and on page 223 a very western European style poster for a Russian shotgun (in English for Raznoexport). The last poster in the book by Vladimir and Georgy Sternberg, from 2001, celebrates past Soviet culture with ten mini posters of famous films.

Overall I thought an excellent selection of posters presented in a well produced book (and good value for the price) but there were a couple of annoying editorial flaws. The page numbers are turned sideways and they assume a bit more importance than the average publication because the details about each poster are at the back of the book and it is rather frustrating to have to keeping turning backwards and forwards. Made perhaps more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for the captions.

I understand that Prestel will have a similar book of North Korean posters out later this year.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

What did YOU do in the Great war daddy?, 18 Mar 2008
I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

Ephemeral fervor, 03 Feb 2008
I was intrigued to read in the intro of this excellent book that the posters shown were printed in quantities of between five thousand and a hundred thousand and mostly had a rather short lifespan so we must be grateful to Sergo Grigorian for having the foresight and enthusiasm to create his collection.

I thought the early posters, from the 1918 onwards, are the most fascinating. There are several in the best Constructivist tradition, page fifty-four has a stunning typographic one designed by Sorbonski or page seventy-two with a movie poster showing a painting of two revolutionary peasants using a machine gun integrated into display headlines and text. However as you look through the pages the graphic style, especially after 1945, slowly morphs into safe predictable State style with plenty of happy children and contemporary versions of Stakhanovites leading the workers into the dazzling future.

The last book section with posters from 1965 to 2001 do show however a rather wide graphic style with strong abstracts, even a bit of pop art, photo montage and on page 223 a very western European style poster for a Russian shotgun (in English for Raznoexport). The last poster in the book by Vladimir and Georgy Sternberg, from 2001, celebrates past Soviet culture with ten mini posters of famous films.

Overall I thought an excellent selection of posters presented in a well produced book (and good value for the price) but there were a couple of annoying editorial flaws. The page numbers are turned sideways and they assume a bit more importance than the average publication because the details about each poster are at the back of the book and it is rather frustrating to have to keeping turning backwards and forwards. Made perhaps more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for the captions.

I understand that Prestel will have a similar book of North Korean posters out later this year.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.




north korea posters, 21 Nov 2008
This is an interesting book of 250 posters similar in many ways to Soviet and Chinese posters but much more agressive in content.
There are 5 concepts illustrated a)constructing the country b)defying enemies c)loyalty and devotion d)defence and e)loyalty The paintings are quite good and very expressive although rapetative at times.
On page 15 the author states that portraits of the Kims have not been produced,this is incorrect as I was presented with one showing both Kims on a visit to Pyongyang but I no longer have it.
A very annoying feature of the book is that captions to the posters are orinted vertically at the side of the page consequentially the book has to be turned to read them.

Ever forward to Paradise, 29 Apr 2008
To quote from Koen De Ceuster in the book's intro: 'Only if the poster appeals to the ideological and aesthetic sentiments of the people will it succeed in truly rousing the people'. The cynical might conclude because the people were not truly roused by these posters is a good enough reason to explain why the economy of the DPRK is in such a ramshackle state.

The 250 reproduced are pretty lackluster in their creativity. This becomes apparent when compared to Soviet Posters (published by Prestel in 2007 and the same size and format) though admittedly they developed over several decades and had the benefit of talent like Lissitzky, Govorkov and Rodchenko to create political masterpieces. With a closed society like North Korea where creativity emanated from the two Kims should anyone expect anything better.

Despite a sameness to many of the images some do stand out. A poster on page 233 is an interesting painting of four horsemen with flags, riding into the future (where else!). As with so many posters the groupings are the same: a soldier, woman farmer, steel worker and an intellectual. The painting style looks quite contemporary though. On page 251 there is a diesel done in a very graphic style with the side of the unit incorporating bold type, the poster headline is in the same perspective as the engine. There are no dates or artists mentioned in any of the captions and looking through the pages I get the impression that maybe the bulk of the posters were created by a small group of artists and designers.

There is a chapter called: Undeterred Defiance, with forty-five posters hurling abuse and dire consequences at the U.S. and some of these look several decades old. Covering the Korean war and more recently the capture of the USS Pueblo in 1968 and a US helicopter incident in 1994. These last two events, very minor in the scheme of things but as they are the only two things that directly affected North Korea their importance is exaggerated enormously.

The book is identical to the Soviet Posters I've mentioned. The same 288 pages, colour throughout, in 150 screen and the same annoyance of having all the captions and page numbers sideways on each page (so four stars) but I thought the Soviet book's contents far more interesting. With two books covering the same subject I wonder if Prestel will extend the idea to Cuban, Polish and East German political posters?

What did YOU do in the Great war daddy?, 18 Mar 2008
I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

Ephemeral fervor, 03 Feb 2008
I was intrigued to read in the intro of this excellent book that the posters shown were printed in quantities of between five thousand and a hundred thousand and mostly had a rather short lifespan so we must be grateful to Sergo Grigorian for having the foresight and enthusiasm to create his collection.

I thought the early posters, from the 1918 onwards, are the most fascinating. There are several in the best Constructivist tradition, page fifty-four has a stunning typographic one designed by Sorbonski or page seventy-two with a movie poster showing a painting of two revolutionary peasants using a machine gun integrated into display headlines and text. However as you look through the pages the graphic style, especially after 1945, slowly morphs into safe predictable State style with plenty of happy children and contemporary versions of Stakhanovites leading the workers into the dazzling future.

The last book section with posters from 1965 to 2001 do show however a rather wide graphic style with strong abstracts, even a bit of pop art, photo montage and on page 223 a very western European style poster for a Russian shotgun (in English for Raznoexport). The last poster in the book by Vladimir and Georgy Sternberg, from 2001, celebrates past Soviet culture with ten mini posters of famous films.

Overall I thought an excellent selection of posters presented in a well produced book (and good value for the price) but there were a couple of annoying editorial flaws. The page numbers are turned sideways and they assume a bit more importance than the average publication because the details about each poster are at the back of the book and it is rather frustrating to have to keeping turning backwards and forwards. Made perhaps more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for the captions.

I understand that Prestel will have a similar book of North Korean posters out later this year.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.




north korea posters, 21 Nov 2008
This is an interesting book of 250 posters similar in many ways to Soviet and Chinese posters but much more agressive in content.
There are 5 concepts illustrated a)constructing the country b)defying enemies c)loyalty and devotion d)defence and e)loyalty The paintings are quite good and very expressive although rapetative at times.
On page 15 the author states that portraits of the Kims have not been produced,this is incorrect as I was presented with one showing both Kims on a visit to Pyongyang but I no longer have it.
A very annoying feature of the book is that captions to the posters are orinted vertically at the side of the page consequentially the book has to be turned to read them.

Ever forward to Paradise, 29 Apr 2008
To quote from Koen De Ceuster in the book's intro: 'Only if the poster appeals to the ideological and aesthetic sentiments of the people will it succeed in truly rousing the people'. The cynical might conclude because the people were not truly roused by these posters is a good enough reason to explain why the economy of the DPRK is in such a ramshackle state.

The 250 reproduced are pretty lackluster in their creativity. This becomes apparent when compared to Soviet Posters (published by Prestel in 2007 and the same size and format) though admittedly they developed over several decades and had the benefit of talent like Lissitzky, Govorkov and Rodchenko to create political masterpieces. With a closed society like North Korea where creativity emanated from the two Kims should anyone expect anything better.

Despite a sameness to many of the images some do stand out. A poster on page 233 is an interesting painting of four horsemen with flags, riding into the future (where else!). As with so many posters the groupings are the same: a soldier, woman farmer, steel worker and an intellectual. The painting style looks quite contemporary though. On page 251 there is a diesel done in a very graphic style with the side of the unit incorporating bold type, the poster headline is in the same perspective as the engine. There are no dates or artists mentioned in any of the captions and looking through the pages I get the impression that maybe the bulk of the posters were created by a small group of artists and designers.

There is a chapter called: Undeterred Defiance, with forty-five posters hurling abuse and dire consequences at the U.S. and some of these look several decades old. Covering the Korean war and more recently the capture of the USS Pueblo in 1968 and a US helicopter incident in 1994. These last two events, very minor in the scheme of things but as they are the only two things that directly affected North Korea their importance is exaggerated enormously.

The book is identical to the Soviet Posters I've mentioned. The same 288 pages, colour throughout, in 150 screen and the same annoyance of having all the captions and page numbers sideways on each page (so four stars) but I thought the Soviet book's contents far more interesting. With two books covering the same subject I wonder if Prestel will extend the idea to Cuban, Polish and East German political posters?





A stunning scrapbook!, 17 Jun 2003
If it's a detailed London Transport history you want, or a techical guide to tube trains, then there are other books out there to explore. If however you're more into a lighter (although very informative) amount of text but enjoy gazing in wonder at a vast collection of visual memorabillia connected with London Transport (mostly the underground but loads on buses too) then I can't think of a more suitable book. There's a fair amount of text but it's swamped by the sheer amount of visuals, all with captions, which glide you through the book in nice little soundbytes. Programmes, posters, maps, illustrations, masses of colour throughout, this is a thoroughly well put together book, tracing the history from the dawning of the first transport system through to the modern day. Hard to put down, and definitely a "feel good" book, this pocket museum is worth every penny.

Rather disappointing, 24 Aug 2001
This is a bit of a 'coffee table' book rather than a comprehensive narrative history of London's transport. Nice pictures, on good quality paper, but not much 'meat' or information.

Though good on buses, trams and the Underground, the book's biggest flaw seems to me the almost total lack of any mention of the role of the 'main line' railways, which formed a major part of suburban transport, particularly in South and East London. To take an example, in the whole 400 pages there is, I think, only one, very early, picture of a Southern Electric, trains which were responsible over almost a century for moving millions of people to and around London (and still do).

The maps in the book, which could have provided much information on the history of the growth of transport coverage, are reproduced at too small a scale to be easily interpreted. Also, there seems to be too much emphasis on pictures of leaflets and posters. The earliest of these may be of historical interest, and the later ones may be excellent examples of commercial art, but they are surely of only peripheral interest to the history of transport itself.

A wonderful pictorial history of LondonTransport, 07 Jul 2001
Anyone living in Lodon knows how important London Transport is in getting about the city and this book celebrates the ups and downs of the company in 1200 (mostly colour) photos, illustrations, diagrams and maps all with excellent long captions. Browsing through the pages I realised what visionary people ran the company in the first half of the past century. The chapter dealing with the Second World War has some fascinating photos of how the Company managed in this difficult period, one shows aircract components made in one of the tunnels. If I have a criticism it is that the thirty or so route maps are too small. Design and production is excellent. The world famous Underground map is mentioned but if you want to know more about it have a look at 'Mr Beck's Underground Map' by Ken Garland, a lovely book published in 1994 with everything you'll ever need to know about Harry Beck's graphic masterpiece.

What did YOU do in the Great war daddy?, 18 Mar 2008
I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

Ephemeral fervor, 03 Feb 2008
I was intrigued to read in the intro of this excellent book that the posters shown were printed in quantities of between five thousand and a hundred thousand and mostly had a rather short lifespan so we must be grateful to Sergo Grigorian for having the foresight and enthusiasm to create his collection.

I thought the early posters, from the 1918 onwards, are the most fascinating. There are several in the best Constructivist tradition, page fifty-four has a stunning typographic one designed by Sorbonski or page seventy-two with a movie poster showing a painting of two revolutionary peasants using a machine gun integrated into display headlines and text. However as you look through the pages the graphic style, especially after 1945, slowly morphs into safe predictable State style with plenty of happy children and contemporary versions of Stakhanovites leading the workers into the dazzling future.

The last book section with posters from 1965 to 2001 do show however a rather wide graphic style with strong abstracts, even a bit of pop art, photo montage and on page 223 a very western European style poster for a Russian shotgun (in English for Raznoexport). The last poster in the book by Vladimir and Georgy Sternberg, from 2001, celebrates past Soviet culture with ten mini posters of famous films.

Overall I thought an excellent selection of posters presented in a well produced book (and good value for the price) but there were a couple of annoying editorial flaws. The page numbers are turned sideways and they assume a bit more importance than the average publication because the details about each poster are at the back of the book and it is rather frustrating to have to keeping turning backwards and forwards. Made perhaps more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for the captions.

I understand that Prestel will have a similar book of North Korean posters out later this year.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.




north korea posters, 21 Nov 2008
This is an interesting book of 250 posters similar in many ways to Soviet and Chinese posters but much more agressive in content.
There are 5 concepts illustrated a)constructing the country b)defying enemies c)loyalty and devotion d)defence and e)loyalty The paintings are quite good and very expressive although rapetative at times.
On page 15 the author states that portraits of the Kims have not been produced,this is incorrect as I was presented with one showing both Kims on a visit to Pyongyang but I no longer have it.
A very annoying feature of the book is that captions to the posters are orinted vertically at the side of the page consequentially the book has to be turned to read them.

Ever forward to Paradise, 29 Apr 2008
To quote from Koen De Ceuster in the book's intro: 'Only if the poster appeals to the ideological and aesthetic sentiments of the people will it succeed in truly rousing the people'. The cynical might conclude because the people were not truly roused by these posters is a good enough reason to explain why the economy of the DPRK is in such a ramshackle state.

The 250 reproduced are pretty lackluster in their creativity. This becomes apparent when compared to Soviet Posters (published by Prestel in 2007 and the same size and format) though admittedly they developed over several decades and had the benefit of talent like Lissitzky, Govorkov and Rodchenko to create political masterpieces. With a closed society like North Korea where creativity emanated from the two Kims should anyone expect anything better.

Despite a sameness to many of the images some do stand out. A poster on page 233 is an interesting painting of four horsemen with flags, riding into the future (where else!). As with so many posters the groupings are the same: a soldier, woman farmer, steel worker and an intellectual. The painting style looks quite contemporary though. On page 251 there is a diesel done in a very graphic style with the side of the unit incorporating bold type, the poster headline is in the same perspective as the engine. There are no dates or artists mentioned in any of the captions and looking through the pages I get the impression that maybe the bulk of the posters were created by a small group of artists and designers.

There is a chapter called: Undeterred Defiance, with forty-five posters hurling abuse and dire consequences at the U.S. and some of these look several decades old. Covering the Korean war and more recently the capture of the USS Pueblo in 1968 and a US helicopter incident in 1994. These last two events, very minor in the scheme of things but as they are the only two things that directly affected North Korea their importance is exaggerated enormously.

The book is identical to the Soviet Posters I've mentioned. The same 288 pages, colour throughout, in 150 screen and the same annoyance of having all the captions and page numbers sideways on each page (so four stars) but I thought the Soviet book's contents far more interesting. With two books covering the same subject I wonder if Prestel will extend the idea to Cuban, Polish and East German political posters?





A stunning scrapbook!, 17 Jun 2003
If it's a detailed London Transport history you want, or a techical guide to tube trains, then there are other books out there to explore. If however you're more into a lighter (although very informative) amount of text but enjoy gazing in wonder at a vast collection of visual memorabillia connected with London Transport (mostly the underground but loads on buses too) then I can't think of a more suitable book. There's a fair amount of text but it's swamped by the sheer amount of visuals, all with captions, which glide you through the book in nice little soundbytes. Programmes, posters, maps, illustrations, masses of colour throughout, this is a thoroughly well put together book, tracing the history from the dawning of the first transport system through to the modern day. Hard to put down, and definitely a "feel good" book, this pocket museum is worth every penny.

Rather disappointing, 24 Aug 2001
This is a bit of a 'coffee table' book rather than a comprehensive narrative history of London's transport. Nice pictures, on good quality paper, but not much 'meat' or information.

Though good on buses, trams and the Underground, the book's biggest flaw seems to me the almost total lack of any mention of the role of the 'main line' railways, which formed a major part of suburban transport, particularly in South and East London. To take an example, in the whole 400 pages there is, I think, only one, very early, picture of a Southern Electric, trains which were responsible over almost a century for moving millions of people to and around London (and still do).

The maps in the book, which could have provided much information on the history of the growth of transport coverage, are reproduced at too small a scale to be easily interpreted. Also, there seems to be too much emphasis on pictures of leaflets and posters. The earliest of these may be of historical interest, and the later ones may be excellent examples of commercial art, but they are surely of only peripheral interest to the history of transport itself.

A wonderful pictorial history of LondonTransport, 07 Jul 2001
Anyone living in Lodon knows how important London Transport is in getting about the city and this book celebrates the ups and downs of the company in 1200 (mostly colour) photos, illustrations, diagrams and maps all with excellent long captions. Browsing through the pages I realised what visionary people ran the company in the first half of the past century. The chapter dealing with the Second World War has some fascinating photos of how the Company managed in this difficult period, one shows aircract components made in one of the tunnels. If I have a criticism it is that the thirty or so route maps are too small. Design and production is excellent. The world famous Underground map is mentioned but if you want to know more about it have a look at 'Mr Beck's Underground Map' by Ken Garland, a lovely book published in 1994 with everything you'll ever need to know about Harry Beck's graphic masterpiece.

Beautiful Tribute to Audrey Hepburn's Movie Career, 29 Oct 2006
A beautiful book full of gorgeous movie poster art work and lobby card art.

"Paramount Years" also features beautiful still pictures of Audrey off set and gorgeous pbulicity photos of Audrey, some of which i had never seen before :) The concept of this book is wonderful it features lots of information on Audrey's career and legacy.

An ideal present for any Audrey fan. A highly enjoyable read!

What did YOU do in the Great war daddy?, 18 Mar 2008
I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

Ephemeral fervor, 03 Feb 2008
I was intrigued to read in the intro of this excellent book that the posters shown were printed in quantities of between five thousand and a hundred thousand and mostly had a rather short lifespan so we must be grateful to Sergo Grigorian for having the foresight and enthusiasm to create his collection.

I thought the early posters, from the 1918 onwards, are the most fascinating. There are several in the best Constructivist tradition, page fifty-four has a stunning typographic one designed by Sorbonski or page seventy-two with a movie poster showing a painting of two revolutionary peasants using a machine gun integrated into display headlines and text. However as you look through the pages the graphic style, especially after 1945, slowly morphs into safe predictable State style with plenty of happy children and contemporary versions of Stakhanovites leading the workers into the dazzling future.

The last book section with posters from 1965 to 2001 do show however a rather wide graphic style with strong abstracts, even a bit of pop art, photo montage and on page 223 a very western European style poster for a Russian shotgun (in English for Raznoexport). The last poster in the book by Vladimir and Georgy Sternberg, from 2001, celebrates past Soviet culture with ten mini posters of famous films.

Overall I thought an excellent selection of posters presented in a well produced book (and good value for the price) but there were a couple of annoying editorial flaws. The page numbers are turned sideways and they assume a bit more importance than the average publication because the details about each poster are at the back of the book and it is rather frustrating to have to keeping turning backwards and forwards. Made perhaps more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for the captions.

I understand that Prestel will have a similar book of North Korean posters out later this year.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.




north korea posters, 21 Nov 2008
This is an interesting book of 250 posters similar in many ways to Soviet and Chinese posters but much more agressive in content.
There are 5 concepts illustrated a)constructing the country b)defying enemies c)loyalty and devotion d)defence and e)loyalty The paintings are quite good and very expressive although rapetative at times.
On page 15 the author states that portraits of the Kims have not been produced,this is incorrect as I was presented with one showing both Kims on a visit to Pyongyang but I no longer have it.
A very annoying feature of the book is that captions to the posters are orinted vertically at the side of the page consequentially the book has to be turned to read them.

Ever forward to Paradise, 29 Apr 2008
To quote from Koen De Ceuster in the book's intro: 'Only if the poster appeals to the ideological and aesthetic sentiments of the people will it succeed in truly rousing the people'. The cynical might conclude because the people were not truly roused by these posters is a good enough reason to explain why the economy of the DPRK is in such a ramshackle state.

The 250 reproduced are pretty lackluster in their creativity. This becomes apparent when compared to Soviet Posters (published by Prestel in 2007 and the same size and format) though admittedly they developed over several decades and had the benefit of talent like Lissitzky, Govorkov and Rodchenko to create political masterpieces. With a closed society like North Korea where creativity emanated from the two Kims should anyone expect anything better.

Despite a sameness to many of the images some do stand out. A poster on page 233 is an interesting painting of four horsemen with flags, riding into the future (where else!). As with so many posters the groupings are the same: a soldier, woman farmer, steel worker and an intellectual. The painting style looks quite contemporary though. On page 251 there is a diesel done in a very graphic style with the side of the unit incorporating bold type, the poster headline is in the same perspective as the engine. There are no dates or artists mentioned in any of the captions and looking through the pages I get the impression that maybe the bulk of the posters were created by a small group of artists and designers.

There is a chapter called: Undeterred Defiance, with forty-five posters hurling abuse and dire consequences at the U.S. and some of these look several decades old. Covering the Korean war and more recently the capture of the USS Pueblo in 1968 and a US helicopter incident in 1994. These last two events, very minor in the scheme of things but as they are the only two things that directly affected North Korea their importance is exaggerated enormously.

The book is identical to the Soviet Posters I've mentioned. The same 288 pages, colour throughout, in 150 screen and the same annoyance of having all the captions and page numbers sideways on each page (so four stars) but I thought the Soviet book's contents far more interesting. With two books covering the same subject I wonder if Prestel will extend the idea to Cuban, Polish and East German political posters?





A stunning scrapbook!, 17 Jun 2003
If it's a detailed London Transport history you want, or a techical guide to tube trains, then there are other books out there to explore. If however you're more into a lighter (although very informative) amount of text but enjoy gazing in wonder at a vast collection of visual memorabillia connected with London Transport (mostly the underground but loads on buses too) then I can't think of a more suitable book. There's a fair amount of text but it's swamped by the sheer amount of visuals, all with captions, which glide you through the book in nice little soundbytes. Programmes, posters, maps, illustrations, masses of colour throughout, this is a thoroughly well put together book, tracing the history from the dawning of the first transport system through to the modern day. Hard to put down, and definitely a "feel good" book, this pocket museum is worth every penny.

Rather disappointing, 24 Aug 2001
This is a bit of a 'coffee table' book rather than a comprehensive narrative history of London's transport. Nice pictures, on good quality paper, but not much 'meat' or information.

Though good on buses, trams and the Underground, the book's biggest flaw seems to me the almost total lack of any mention of the role of the 'main line' railways, which formed a major part of suburban transport, particularly in South and East London. To take an example, in the whole 400 pages there is, I think, only one, very early, picture of a Southern Electric, trains which were responsible over almost a century for moving millions of people to and around London (and still do).

The maps in the book, which could have provided much information on the history of the growth of transport coverage, are reproduced at too small a scale to be easily interpreted. Also, there seems to be too much emphasis on pictures of leaflets and posters. The earliest of these may be of historical interest, and the later ones may be excellent examples of commercial art, but they are surely of only peripheral interest to the history of transport itself.

A wonderful pictorial history of LondonTransport, 07 Jul 2001
Anyone living in Lodon knows how important London Transport is in getting about the city and this book celebrates the ups and downs of the company in 1200 (mostly colour) photos, illustrations, diagrams and maps all with excellent long captions. Browsing through the pages I realised what visionary people ran the company in the first half of the past century. The chapter dealing with the Second World War has some fascinating photos of how the Company managed in this difficult period, one shows aircract components made in one of the tunnels. If I have a criticism it is that the thirty or so route maps are too small. Design and production is excellent. The world famous Underground map is mentioned but if you want to know more about it have a look at 'Mr Beck's Underground Map' by Ken Garland, a lovely book published in 1994 with everything you'll ever need to know about Harry Beck's graphic masterpiece.

Beautiful Tribute to Audrey Hepburn's Movie Career, 29 Oct 2006
A beautiful book full of gorgeous movie poster art work and lobby card art.

"Paramount Years" also features beautiful still pictures of Audrey off set and gorgeous pbulicity photos of Audrey, some of which i had never seen before :) The concept of this book is wonderful it features lots of information on Audrey's career and legacy.

An ideal present for any Audrey fan. A highly enjoyable read!

I fell in love with this book!, 17 Feb 2005
I don't what else there is to say. The book is packed with beautiful creative posters, that have been very inspiring to me. I haven't even gotten around to reading it yet. I'm still not done with the images on just the first 50 pages... just faaab!

The Mother of all Poster Books, 16 Nov 2004
First of all, i could not review this book without first mentioning its size. This book is HUGE - 11" x 13", and 492 pages thick... and it weighs a ton. From the cover illustartion, to the last page in the book it is full of beautiful full colour glossy artwork. Covering all the great modern day poster artists as well as some up and coming talent, this book is an invaluable source of inspiration. The price is also extremely reasonable for a hardback book of this size and quality.

What did YOU do in the Great war daddy?, 18 Mar 2008
I can't draw or paint if my life depended on it but I can appreciate great art.

This book is broken down in to sections on the poster,propaganda and publicity, the First World war, inter war years the Second World War and the Cold War and the new world order.

Some posters became iconic images such as Alfred Leete's Britons (Kitchener) Needs You. Published 1914 This has been adapted by the US army and reused again in the Vietnam war.

It has to have symbolic language or a metonymy which I learnt is where part stands for a whole such as a flag for a country, a bomb stands for war.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima has been reused for war bonds and again for Sarajevo Olympics 1994.

The stop the war coalition used the photos of abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004. Atrocities are sometimes shown and in the First World War the supposed crucificion of an Canadian soldier was used as "Your liberty bond will help stop this." Later it was admitted that the story was made up.

Racial stereotyping was common, Germans as barbarians Japanese as the Yellow peril. In the 1920s French colonial troops in the Ruhr were depicted as sexual predators.

The First World War with Daddy what did You do in the Great war" with two children and Dad looking worried. Also Women of Britain say- Go! Beautiful produced posters with an effective message.

Rarely is actual killing shown and a depiction of a British soldier bayoneting a German shocked both the British and Germans with the slogan Put strength in the final blow. Buy war bonds.

In the inter war years some of the German anti communists posters are quite horrible with gorillas and many headed hydras.

I love the British posters of the second world war showing an idealised Britain "Your Britain fight for it now. It shows a traditional pastoral image of Britain The US recruiting posters made the servicemen and women look positively glamorous. .

Other slogan have passed into the language so they must have worked such as Dig for Victory, Careless talk costs lives and Keep Mum she's not so dumb. The posters and art work were undertaken by educated people and I remember they produced one which is not shown in the is book.

It had the slogan Mighter Yet. They withdrew it because no one understood what it meant, it was of course from Land of Hope and glory

The more modern anti war posters tend to mix photos and although clever are not so artistically satisfying.

All in all an outstandingly beautiful book I could dip in and out of it all day long. A pleasure to look at and an absolute bargain at the price for the fabulous art work alone.

Ephemeral fervor, 03 Feb 2008
I was intrigued to read in the intro of this excellent book that the posters shown were printed in quantities of between five thousand and a hundred thousand and mostly had a rather short lifespan so we must be grateful to Sergo Grigorian for having the foresight and enthusiasm to create his collection.

I thought the early posters, from the 1918 onwards, are the most fascinating. There are several in the best Constructivist tradition, page fifty-four has a stunning typographic one designed by Sorbonski or page seventy-two with a movie poster showing a painting of two revolutionary peasants using a machine gun integrated into display headlines and text. However as you look through the pages the graphic style, especially after 1945, slowly morphs into safe predictable State style with plenty of happy children and contemporary versions of Stakhanovites leading the workers into the dazzling future.

The last book section with posters from 1965 to 2001 do show however a rather wide graphic style with strong abstracts, even a bit of pop art, photo montage and on page 223 a very western European style poster for a Russian shotgun (in English for Raznoexport). The last poster in the book by Vladimir and Georgy Sternberg, from 2001, celebrates past Soviet culture with ten mini posters of famous films.

Overall I thought an excellent selection of posters presented in a well produced book (and good value for the price) but there were a couple of annoying editorial flaws. The page numbers are turned sideways and they assume a bit more importance than the average publication because the details about each poster are at the back of the book and it is rather frustrating to have to keeping turning backwards and forwards. Made perhaps more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for the captions.

I understand that Prestel will have a similar book of North Korean posters out later this year.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.




north korea posters, 21 Nov 2008
This is an interesting book of 250 posters similar in many ways to Soviet and Chinese posters but much more agressive in content.
There are 5 concepts illustrated a)constructing the country b)defying enemies c)loyalty and devotion d)defence and e)loyalty The paintings are quite good and very expressive although rapetative at times.
On page 15 the author states that portraits of the Kims have not been produced,this is incorrect as I was presented with one showing both Kims on a visit to Pyongyang but I no longer have it.
A very annoying feature of the book is that captions to the posters are orinted vertically at the side of the page consequentially the book has to be turned to read them.

Ever forward to Paradise, 29 Apr 2008
To quote from Koen De Ceuster in the book's intro: 'Only if the poster appeals to the ideological and aesthetic sentiments of the people will it succeed in truly rousing the people'. The cynical might conclude because the people were not truly roused by these posters is a good enough reason to explain why the economy of the DPRK is in such a ramshackle state.

The 250 reproduced are pretty lackluster in their creativity. This becomes apparent when compared to Soviet Posters (published by Prestel in 2007 and the same size and format) though admittedly they developed over several decades and had the benefit of talent like Lissitzky, Govorkov and Rodchenko to create political masterpieces. With a closed society like North Korea where creativity emanated from the two Kims should anyone expect anything better.

Despite a sameness to many of the images some do stand out. A poster on page 233 is an interesting painting of four horsemen with flags, riding into the future (where else!). As with so many posters the groupings are the same: a soldier, woman farmer, steel worker and an intellectual. The painting style looks quite contemporary though. On page 251 there is a diesel done in a very graphic style with the side of the unit incorporating bold type, the poster headline is in the same perspective as the engine. There are no dates or artists mentioned in any of the captions and looking through the pages I get the impression that maybe the bulk of the posters were created by a small group of artists and designers.

There is a chapter called: Undeterred Defiance, with forty-five posters hurling abuse and dire consequences at the U.S. and some of these look several decades old. Covering the Korean war and more recently the capture of the USS Pueblo in 1968 and a US helicopter incident in 1994. These last two events, very minor in the scheme of things but as they are the only two things that directly affected North Korea their importance is exaggerated enormously.

The book is identical to the Soviet Posters I've mentioned. The same 288 pages, colour throughout, in 150 screen and the same annoyance of having all the captions and page numbers sideways on each page (so four stars) but I thought the Soviet book's contents far more interesting. With two books covering the same subject I wonder if Prestel will extend the idea to Cuban, Polish and East German political posters?





A stunning scrapbook!, 17 Jun 2003
If it's a detailed London Transport history you want, or a techical guide to tube trains, then there are other books out there to explore. If however you're more into a lighter (although very informative) amount of text but enjoy gazing in wonder at a vast collection of visual memorabillia connected with London Transport (mostly the underground but loads on buses too) then I can't think of a more suitable book. There's a fair amount of text but it's swamped by the sheer amount of visuals, all with captions, which glide you through the book in nice little soundbytes. Programmes, posters, maps, illustrations, masses of colour throughout, this is a thoroughly well put together book, tracing the history from the dawning of the first transport system through to the modern day. Hard to put down, and definitely a "feel good" book, this pocket museum is worth every penny.

Rather disappointing, 24 Aug 2001
This is a bit of a 'coffee table' book rather than a comprehensive narrative history of London's transport. Nice pictures, on good quality paper, but not much 'meat' or information.

Though good on buses, trams and the Underground, the book's biggest flaw seems to me the almost total lack of any mention of the role of the 'main line' railways, which formed a major part of suburban transport, particularly in South and East London. To take an example, in the whole 400 pages there is, I think, only one, very early, picture of a Southern Electric, trains which were responsible over almost a century for moving millions of people to and around London (and still do).

The maps in the book, which could have provided much information on the history of the growth of transport coverage, are reproduced at too small a scale to be easily interpreted. Also, there seems to be too much emphasis on pictures of leaflets and posters. The earliest of these may be of historical interest, and the later ones may be excellent examples of commercial art, but they are surely of only peripheral interest to the history of transport itself.

A wonderful pictorial history of LondonTransport, 07 Jul 2001
Anyone living in Lodon knows how important London Transport is in getting about the city and this book celebrates the ups and downs of the company in 1200 (mostly colour) photos, illustrations, diagrams and maps all with excellent long captions. Browsing through the pages I realised what visionary people ran the company in the first half of the past century. The chapter dealing with the Second World War has some fascinating photos of how the Company managed in this difficult period, one shows aircract components made in one of the tunnels. If I have a criticism it is that the thirty or so route maps are too small. Design and production is excellent. The world famous Underground map is mentioned but if you want to know more about it have a look at 'Mr Beck's Underground Map' by Ken Garland, a lovely book published in 1994 with everything you'll ever need to know about Harry Beck's graphic masterpiece.

Beautiful Tribute to Audrey Hepburn's Movie Career, 29 Oct 2006
A beautiful book full of gorgeous movie poster art work and lobby card art.

"Paramount Years" also features beautiful still pictures of Audrey off set and gorgeous pbulicity photos of Audrey, some of which i had never seen before :) The concept of this book is wonderful it features lots of information on Audrey's career and legacy.

An ideal present for any Audrey fan. A highly enjoyable read!

I fell in love with this book!, 17 Feb 2005
I don't what else there is to say. The book is packed with beautiful creative posters, that have been very inspiring to me. I haven't even gotten around to reading it yet. I'm still not done with the images on just the first 50 pages... just faaab!

The Mother of all Poster Books, 16 Nov 2004
First of all, i could not review this book without first mentioning its size. This book is HUGE - 11" x 13", and 492 pages thick... and it weighs a ton. From the cover illustartion, to the last page in the book it is full of beautiful full colour glossy artwork. Covering all the great modern day poster artists as well as some up and coming talent, this book is an invaluable source of inspiration. The price is also extremely reasonable for a hardback book of this size and quality.

Aarrgghh! It's Fantastic, 28 Dec 2007
What an absolutley fantastic book, I've ben waiting for a book like this for years, I can't put it down. to see the original paintings is such a thrill, I started collecting war comics especialy War Picture Library since they first came out, I'm 57 now and they still have not lost their magic, even as a kid of 9 or 10 back in the late 50's, I was artracted to the art of the front covers, and I still am, I too often wondred what happen'd to the art, were they stored somewhre or dumped? what a joy it was to find that most of them survived, I wish I could own some?
David Roach has done a superb job, I tip my hat, congratulations.