America - Open Your Eyes!

America didn't enter WWII until December, 1941, over two years after Germany invaded Poland and the war began. In August of 1941, Fortune magazine published a special issue meant to pressure American businesses to support their peers overseas. The thought was that American businesses could lobby and pressure the US government into finally entering the war to support their Allies. The magazine included several posters, of which this is one. Jean Carlu, the French artist of this poster, would have already been keenly aware of the threat of Nazism and this intensity can be seen in the poster's concise and dramatic design. Printing on the back (which has been concealed in the linen backing process) explains the purpose of the poster series: "Preeminently America is an industrial nation and America's preeminent function in the war is as an arsenal of democracy. Yet America's capacity to produce is no stronger than the will of the men who work her mines and factories. What labor must real