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
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Supply, Salvage and Recovery (imprint M.O.S. S&R 105), printed for H.M. Stationery Office by W. R. Royle & Son, Ltd.
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Ministry of Supply; printed by W. R. Royle & Son Ltd., c. 1939-1945. U.S. National Archives, RG 44.
Text on the object
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
