I Want You for U.S. Army (1917 poster)

James Montgomery Flagg openly borrowed the Kitchener pose and handed it to Uncle Sam, using his own reflection for the face. More than four million copies were printed in 1917 and 1918. Seen next to its British model, it shows how a proven technique travels and improves. The direct stare and pointing finger stay, but a real general, who could fail, die or fall from favor, is replaced by a national symbol who can do none of those things. The appeal stops being about one leader's authority and becomes the country itself asking, a figure that can be reprinted for any war without going out of date.