The first compact history of the American poster ― a unique resource for those who are fascinated by American history and popular culture: scholars, collectors, designers, and students. The “modern” American poster has figured prominently in virtually every major political, social, commercial, and cultural development in the country. With arresting images and text, these posters have informed and “sold” Americans on election campaigns, the nation's war efforts, protest movements, consumer products, travel, entertainment, etc. They also comprise a history of U.S. graphic design, reflecting dramatic changes in style, advertising theory, and printing, as well as the emergence of key graphic designers. The American Image provides a rare survey of this popular art, spanning more than one hundred years. Selected from the Resnick Collection, the book analyzes some 70 posters representative of every significant style and theme. They range from design masterpieces to works of historical value, from posters by renowned designers to those created anonymously, and from celebrated images to those never before published. This handsome book includes superb, full-color reproductions; an incisive essay on American poster design by R. Roger Remington; and a preface and authoritative commentary on each image by Mark Resnick. If one unifying theme emerges from this wide-ranging survey it is the power of good design to inform, excite, agitate, and inspire. The formal simplicity of many of these posters conveys more information and emotion than entire volumes on the same subjects. The strength of great designers is their ability to whittle a complex message down to its essence and present it in a clear, memorable visual style. The adage "good design is invisible" holds true, but not in this room full of exceptional examples. --City Newspaper, Sept. 13, 2006 R. Roger Remington is the Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design Emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. He is an experienced teacher, scholar and author with critical interests in graphic design history, research, archiving and interpretation of historical documents.