The iconic image by Alfred Leete of Lord Kitchener with outstretched hand and finger, exhorting you to "do your bit," is a design classic and has been repeatedly imitated worldwide. In the run-up to the World War I anniversary, Your Country Needs YOU celebrates the magnificent artwork of Leete and his fellow designers, and explores their legacy. Featuring color reproductions of propaganda posters and drawing on fresh analysis of the archives, this book challenges received historical wisdom about these hugely popular and enduring images, and reveals a surprising new history that is no less than groundbreaking.

Immigration divides our globalizing world like no other issue. We are swamped by illegal immigrants and infiltrated by terrorists, our jobs stolen, our welfare system abused, our way of life destroyed--or so we are told. At a time when National Guard units are deployed alongside vigilante Minutemen on the U.S.-Mexico border, where the death toll in the past decade now exceeds 9/11's, Philippe Legrain has written the first book about immigration that looks beyond the headlines. Why are ever-rising numbers of people from poor countries arriving in the United States, Europe, and Australia? Can we keep them out? Should we even be trying? Combining compelling firsthand reporting from around the world, incisive socioeconomic analysis, and a broad understanding of what's at stake politically and culturally, Immigrants is a passionate but lucid book. In our open world, more people will inevitably move across borders, Legrain says--and we should generally welcome them. They do the jobs we can't or won't do--and their diversity enriches us all. Left and Right, free marketeers and campaigners for global justice, enlightened patriots--all should rally behind the cause of freer migration, because They need Us and We need Them.

As Philip Taylor has written, 'The challenge (of the modern information age) is to ensure that no single propaganda source gains monopoly over the information and images that shape our thoughts. If this happens, the war propagandists will be back in business again.' Propaganda came of age in the Twentieth Century. The development of mass- and multi-media offered a fertile ground for propaganda while global conflict provided the impetus needed for its growth. Propaganda has however become a portmanteau word, which can be interpreted in a number of different ways. What are the characteristic features of propaganda, and how can it be defined? The distinguished contributors to this book trace the development of techniques of 'opinion management' from the First World War to the current conflict in Afghanistan. They reveal how state leaders and spin-doctors operating at the behest of the state, sought to shape popular attitudes - at home and overseas - endeavouring to harness new media with the objective of winning hearts and minds. The book provides compelling evidence of how the study and practice of propaganda today is shaped by its history.

"The most famous image of World War I is from a recruiting poster. "BRITONS," the poster blares across its top Admiral Kitchener---the most decorated and admired figure in the British military at the time---stares out with a steely glance, broad moustaches flaring from his face, finger thrust insistently at the spellbound viewer. Alongside his powerful, resolute face are the words "Wants You." The message was clear, and impossible to ignore: this war was going to need every Briton to pitch in. Kitchener Wants You presents the first book-length examination of that poster and its legacy. Martyn Thatcher and Anthony Quinn take readers through the origins and design of the poster, the public response, and its long afterlife as a historical icon, as well as a milestone in the history of both design and propaganda. A century after Lord Kitchener died when the HMS Hampshire was sunk, Kitchener Wants You brings the period to life through a fascinating analysis of its most lasting visual representation."--Publisher's description.

Responding to the call Your Country Needs You, cadet nurses became the largest and youngest group of uniformed women to serve their country in uniform during World War II. The Corps program was established primarily to expand the quantity of nursing service personnel during a critical nurse shortage. Thanks to federal funding, nursing leaders took advantage of the opportunity to improve nursing education. Wearing the scarlet and grey uniform also gave cadets the confidence to speak out regarding an authoritative nurse training system prevalent in the 1940’s. This book gives a better understanding as to the advances made in nursing education during the past half century.

Acclaimed New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself. Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies. • What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war? • What does it feel like to get shot? • What do artillery shells do to you? • What is the most painful way to get wounded? • Will I be afraid? • What could happen to me in a nuclear attack? • What does it feel like to kill someone? • Can I withstand torture? • What are the long-term consequences of combat stress? • What will happen to my body after I die? This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.

J.K. Rowling, one of the world's most inspiring writers, shares her wisdom and advice. In 2008, J.K. Rowling delivered a deeply affecting commencement speech at Harvard University. Now published for the first time in book form, VERY GOOD LIVES presents J.K. Rowling's words of wisdom for anyone at a turning point in life. How can we embrace failure? And how can we use our imagination to better both ourselves and others? Drawing from stories of her own post-graduate years, the world famous author addresses some of life's most important questions with acuity and emotional force.

It's August 1914. You are 16-year-old Tommy Atkins, living in London. Set against the backdrop of the war just broken out in Europe, find out what your life was like after joining up and being sent to the trenches. From sharing your bed with rats and lice to a diet of bully beef, bread and biscuits, discover why you really wouldn't want to be a soldier living in a trench during World War One. Handy hints include how to protect your feet from trenchfoot, how to use pigeons as spies and how to detect enemy tunnelling beneath your trench.