Mind Control: Propaganda In War-Time Comics
Created by Olivia Williams
About This Lesson
These activities are catered towards upper level high school students (11th and 12th graders) taking American History (standards from American History II). This lesson will focus mainly on the role of comic books in spreading propagandist views during war time (specifically World War II) and getting the younger population involved in the war effort. These activities will also contain a component of media literacy (For more on Media Literacy, visit the "So What?" page). There are three pieces of media provided for the analysis and evaluation component: a Captain America comic cover featuring Hitler, a Wonder Woman ad about saving paper, and a certificate for entry into the Junior Justice Society. The issue of the Captain America comic whose cover is featured in this lesson was first released during World War II (CBS Interactive Inc., 2014). The Captain America comics were created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in the early 1940's and in them Captain America was depicted fighting Hitler even before the U.S. had entered the war (CBS, 2014). The Wonder Woman ad was part of a movement to get kids and teens to help with the war effort (Hanley, 2012). This particular ad describes the importance of not wasting paper and how essential it was to the war effort that the younger generation get involved. Finally, before the Justice League, there was the Justice Society in the 1940's in which Wonder Woman was the secretary (Hanley, 2012). She signed the certificates of new members of the Junior Justice Society. This circulated in the hopes of making young Americans inspired to defend democracy.
Standards
The standards that this lesson will meet are as follows:
AH2.H.1
Apply the four interconnected dimensions of historical thinking to the American History Essential Standards in order to understand the creation and development of the United States over time.
AH2.H.1.2
Use Historical Comprehension to: Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations and analyze visual, literary and musical sources
AH2.H.1.3
Use Historical Analysis and Interpretation to: Identify issues and problems of the past, Consider multiple perspectives of various peoples of the past, Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation, Evaluate competing historical narratives and debates among historians, and Evaluate the influence of the past on contemporary issues.
To meet these standards, this lesson requires students to look at comic strips and covers from comic books that were made and distributed during war time in the U.S. They will analyze the perspectives of the audience, the creators, and the subjects and distinguish between fact and propaganda. In doing this, they will uncover issues and problems of that time and evaluate how these (and the comics themselves) have influenced modern society.
AH2.H.1
Apply the four interconnected dimensions of historical thinking to the American History Essential Standards in order to understand the creation and development of the United States over time.
AH2.H.1.2
Use Historical Comprehension to: Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations and analyze visual, literary and musical sources
AH2.H.1.3
Use Historical Analysis and Interpretation to: Identify issues and problems of the past, Consider multiple perspectives of various peoples of the past, Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation, Evaluate competing historical narratives and debates among historians, and Evaluate the influence of the past on contemporary issues.
To meet these standards, this lesson requires students to look at comic strips and covers from comic books that were made and distributed during war time in the U.S. They will analyze the perspectives of the audience, the creators, and the subjects and distinguish between fact and propaganda. In doing this, they will uncover issues and problems of that time and evaluate how these (and the comics themselves) have influenced modern society.