---
title: The Nation Needs Your Books for the Services and for Salvage
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-nation-needs-your-books-services-salvage-1939/
description: A narrow banner shows a soldier in a steel helmet sitting on a heap of books, reading. Tagged by technique, with source and rights.
section: Collection
---

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3. The Nation Needs Your Books for the Services and for Salvage

[![The Nation Needs Your Books for the Services and for Salvage, 1939 UK poster: A narrow banner shows a soldier in a steel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-nation-needs-your-books-services-salvage-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-nation-needs-your-books-services-salvage-1939.jpg)

# The Nation Needs Your Books for the Services and for Salvage

A narrow banner shows a soldier in a steel helmet sitting on a heap of books, reading. The soldier's image attaches the appeal to the armed forces, and 'The Nation' is a broad collective term that makes giving books a national duty (transfer and glittering generalities).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
The Nation needs YOUR BOOKS
for the SERVICES
and for SALVAGE

PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY W. R. ROYLE & SON LTD., LONDON, E.C.4. 51-5115
M.O.S. S&R 105
```

[← 'More Ships - Come on!' War Savings are Warships](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-more-ships-come-on-war-savings-1939/) [National Book Recovery and Salvage Appeal: Take your unwanted Books to the Receiving Depot →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-national-book-recovery-take-unwanted-books-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)