Politically and Socially: During World War I the posters and artwork had different purposes politically. The posters and artwork were a means of propaganda used by the government to control what the people saw of the war through the artwork and the message given through the posters. Some pieces of artwork that were drawn by artists on the front lines was not displayed in galleries until after World War I was over because of the message through imagery that they carried. Some of the more graphic pieces of artwork were not displayed because if the public got a message that fighting the war was bad, then people could have started rallying against the government causing people to question their loyalty to the government. A lack of loyalty to the decisions that are made by the government would have led to people rebelling in either a vocal way such as protests and silent rebelling such as not buying the liberty bonds that funded the Americas to fight in World War I. If people rebelled and did not buy the liberty bonds then America would have suffered an economical shortage of support from the citizens and America would not have been able to fight off Germany and naval control would have been lost over the many fleets of America.
The posters were used politically to get people to buy liberty bonds which were vital in America fighting in World War I. The posters were one of the only ways of communicating events to the public besides artwork and newspapers and they held a very high position in influence in communication. This position was mostly controlled by the government and because of its influencial power, the government used the posters to portray images that made America's cause for fighting in the war look good to the public. It produced strong images of propaganda that made the enemy, which were the Germans at the time, seem as a huge potential threat that needed to be destroyed and that all the German people were horrible people that should not be stood for. This gave the government an advantage because they did not need to show all the sides of what was going on in World War I which gave the public a lopsided view of what was going on. After the message that all Germans were bad and they posed the greatest threat were posted to the public, the government had almost complete support of America because of the messages the posters carried out to the public.
Due to the governmental control of what the public saw, most opinions were lopsided. Most people bought into what mesages were being portrayed and were completely supportve of America. There were however some groups that opposed the war, but they were not influential enough to pose a threat to public support. Almost all countries that participated in the war had different views on the war that differed due to the postition in World War I that they were in.