ABSTRACT
This chapter includes an extended discussion of a visual topic: World War II era government sponsored poster campaigns designed to encourage frugal consumption on the home front. From 1930 to 1945 significant domestic and international events disrupted American consumer culture. The Great Depression reduced the incomes and spending of many households and pushed some people to the brink of starvation. Frugality in consumption was not universal, for the Depression did not diminish everyone's lifestyle, but thriftiness typified families across the nation, across social class, and across ethnic and racial groups. Then, in World War II, the federal government prioritized production of war materiel, thus interrupting the supply of consumer durables, and its rationing schemes controlled the consumption of foods, gasoline, and other nondurables. War jobs were plentiful and wages the highest in years, but with limited spending opportunities, home front consumers saved money and instead bought War Bonds.
