Content note: Poster shows a figure under a swastika flag wearing a swastika armband. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Why should I work any harder? I'm not fighting the war!
Industrial-sponsor poster: an older worker in glasses and waistcoat stands with hands on hips, the words Why should I work any harder? beside him, while behind him a figure under a swastika flag with an armband oversees a bench. The caption I'm not fighting the war! frames the worker's attitude; the swastika overseer is a fear-appeal showing what the quoted attitude is said to risk.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Heppenstall Co., Steel Forgings, Pittsburgh (artist signature signature not legible)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Labor, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 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 Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Heppenstall Co., Steel Forgings, Pittsburgh. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-121 (NAID 513569).
Text on the object
Why should I work any harder ? I'm not fighting the War ! [signature: illegible] [imprint: COPYRIGHT 1943, HEPPENSTALL CO., STEEL FORGINGS, PITTSBURGH, PA.]
