If You Want to Fight! Join the Marines
A smiling young woman in a Marine Corps uniform with field gear stands before a column of marching troops and a flag, under the headline 'If you want to fight! Join the Marines.' The tell is the appeal to the viewer's own wish to fight, carried by a glamorous figure whose presence makes enlistment a test of the viewer's self-image.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1917
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Marine Corps recruiting; Howard Chandler Christy (artist)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Themes
- War and the military, Gender and suffrage
- Event
- World War I
- Regime
- Wilson administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Marine Corps recruiting; Howard Chandler Christy (artist). National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-52.
Text on the object
IF YOU WANT To FIGHT! JOIN THE MARINES Howard Chandler Christy. 191[final digit uncertain]
