---
title: A national emergency is upon us - Arise America before it is too late!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-national-emergency-is-upon-us-1941/
description: 'Navy recruiting poster: a waving 48-star flag above large lettering reading ''A National Emergency is upon us - Arise America before it is too late!''.'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. A national emergency is upon us - Arise America before it is too late!

[![A national emergency is upon us - Arise America before it is too late!, 1941 US poster: Navy recruiting poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/a-national-emergency-is-upon-us-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/a-national-emergency-is-upon-us-1941.jpg)

# A national emergency is upon us - Arise America before it is too late!

Navy recruiting poster: a waving 48-star flag above large lettering reading 'A National Emergency is upon us - Arise America before it is too late!', then 'Defend your Country and your Loved Ones. Enlist now in the United States Navy or U.S. Naval Reserve'. Urgency and a threat to family are stated in words alone, without any depiction of an enemy.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
A National
Emergency
IS UPON US
Arise America
before it is too late!
Defend your Country
and your Loved Ones
Enlist now in
The UNITED STATES NAVY
or U.S. NAVAL RESERVE
[imprint: illegible]
```

[← A key to victory: Lock your lips](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-key-to-victory-lock-your-lips-1941/) [A rumor, like the seeds we sow, will grow and grow and grow. Don't be a blabbermouth →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/a-rumor-grow-and-grow-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)