Relatively cheap to reproduce and easily circulated, a good poster is an effective way to flag a message. The best posters also have aesthetic merit and, historically, have drawn from a wide range of visual sources. Agitate!Educate! Organize! is an interesting study of one of the less examined fields of poster art: their use as propaganda for the American labor movement. The authors have collected hundreds of images, most of them in color, forming a sketchy pictorial chronicle of labor unrest and trade unionism. Some of the strongest posters, associated with the United Farm Workers and the IWW, evoke deep and long-standing cultural and historical images.
