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Posted: 03-08-2013 11:51 Post subject:

I think it became an icon in the so-called Swinging Sixties, when its patriotism seemed quaint and weird. I have probably seen the image more often in the discussion of that decade than in material about WWI.

Its potential for ironic variation can be demonstrated by a quick Google Image search. I don't recognize all the faces but spotted Benny Hill, Wallace & Gromit and a nameless cow!

The slogan seems to have been used on other official posters with the slightly religious invitation to "Follow Me" above the image of a soldier, which makes it more of an appeal to the conscience than a stern command. "Your Country Needs You" was also rather less effectively superimposed on an outline map of the British isles, directly addressing the viewers as Britons.

There was a glut of pictorial material about the Great War before it became WWI and it would be interesting to see if the Kitchener kitsch turns up in those collections and in what context. Cool

It is certainly picked out as "The most famous of all war posters" in "The Arts in Britain in World War I" by John Ferguson. But this is a 1980 book. The full-page b & w illustration there - as in many places - shows signs of having been folded as a poster might have been. Anyway, original artwork might also have been folded . . . Spiny

Posted: 03-08-2013 12:13 Post subject:

I recommend this:
http://radioarchive.cc/torrents-details.php?id=2076

And the site in general.

Posted: 03-08-2013 18:02 Post subject:

Did the British YCNY poster appear before or after the famous American "Uncle Sam Needs You" poster, with said patriotic character pointing out at you?

Posted: 03-08-2013 18:11 Post subject:

I always thought the Uncle Sam one was based on the Kitchener one.

My paternal grandfather's middle name was Kitchener; family legend had that it was to commemorate Kitchener's death, but that turned out not to be true, when someone finally looked up the dates Laughing

Posted: 03-08-2013 22:14 Post subject:

Posted: 03-08-2013 23:01 Post subject:

The well-named James Montgomery Flagg designed the Uncle Sam version which is said to have been used in WWI:

Flagg Hag

No exact date given, alas. Sad

Wikipedia says 1917

Uncle Sam - in his original versions? - always seemed to make the demand very personal: "I want you!"

It has had many parodies since. "I want you . . . unless!" Confused

Posted: 03-08-2013 23:10 Post subject:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/grained/unclesam_zps9ddcb862.jpg

Posted: 04-09-2013 08:21 Post subject:

Can't find a suitable Earth Mysteries thread for this, so I'll park it here:

New timeline for origin of ancient Egypt
By Rebecca Morelle, Science reporter, BBC World Service

A new timeline for the origin of ancient Egypt has been established by scientists.
A team from the UK found that the transformation from a land of disparate farmers into a state ruled by a king was more rapid than previously thought.
Using radiocarbon dating and computer models, they believe the civilisation's first ruler - King Aha - came to power in about 3100BC.
The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

Lead researcher Dr Michael Dee, from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology at the University of Oxford, said: "The formation of Egypt was unique in the ancient world. It was a territorial state; a state from which the moment it formed had established borders over a territory in much the same way we think of nations today.
"Trying to understand what happened in human history to lead people to establish this sort of polity we felt was a gap in understanding that needed to be filled."

Until now, the chronology of the earliest days of Egypt has been based on rough estimates.
With no written records from this very early period, a timeline has been based on the evolving styles of ceramics unearthed from human burial sites.

Now though, scientists have used radiocarbon dating of excavated hair, bones and plants, with established archaeological evidence and computer models to pinpoint when the ancient state came into existence.

Previous records suggested the pre-Dynastic period, a time when early groups began to settle along the Nile and farm the land, began in 4000BC. But the new analysis revealed this process started later, between 3700 or 3600BC.
The team found that just a few hundred years later, by about 3100BC, society had transformed to one ruled by a king.

Dr Dee told the BBC World Service programme Science in Action: "The time period is shorter than was previously thought - about 300 or 400 years shorter. Egypt was a state that emerged quickly - over that time one has immense social change.
"This is interesting when one compares it with other places. In Mesopotamia, for example, you have agriculture for several thousand years before you have anything like a state."

Archaeologists believe Egypt's first king, Aha, came to power after another prominent leader, Narmer, unified the land.

The team was also able to date the reigns of the next seven kings and queens - Djer, Djet, Queen Merneith, Den, Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qa'a - who with Aha formed Egypt's first dynasty.

The model suggests that King Djer may have ruled for more than 50 years. This is such a long period, it raises the possibility that there may have been other kings or queens of Egypt that we do not know about or that the state may have collapsed and reformed.

Commenting on the research, Prof Joann Fletcher from the department of archaeology at the University of York, said: "This is highly significant work, which pulls the beginnings of Egypt's dynastic history into much sharper focus - it is tremendously valuable to have such a precise timeline for Egypt's first rulers.
"The study also has ramifications for the earlier pre-Dynastic period, allowing us to better understand these key periods of transition."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23947820

Is Alan Partridge a reincarnation of King Aha? Wink