Sinking of RMS Lusitania

We’re talking about the sinking of the Lusitania, and the role that incident played in getting the U.S. into World War I.  The text book doesn’t do justice to all the implications.

Enlistment poster, after the sinking of the Lusitania

94 years ago,  the German submarine U-20 sank the Lusitania, champion of the Cunard Line, on May 7, 1915.

World War I appears to have been a heyday for propaganda posters.  Google up “Lusitania +poster” and you can find a wealth of recruiting posters and just plain propaganda posters.  If only we had the time, there are a couple of lesson plans waiting in that search.

Note:  Details on the poster: Artist, Fred Spear, 1915; “Enlist,” published by Sackett & Wilhelms Corp.  Incidentally, this poster was pubished in Boston, in 1915 — two years before the U.S. entered the war; did this poster have much propaganda effect, do you think?

Other resources:

• All Lusitania, all the time:  Lusitania blog

Borrowed, mostly, with permission from Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.