Europe Unie / Gage de Paix. [United Europe / Guarantee of Peace]
- Title:
- Europe Unie / Gage de Paix. [United Europe / Guarantee of Peace]
- Alternate Title:
- United Europe / Guarantee of Peace
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Morac
- Other Creators:
- Paix et Liberté
- Date:
- 1951
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2205.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2205_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Subject:
- Communism & Cold War
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 77 x 55 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This poster from the early 1950s presents the unity of Western Europe as key to preventing the spread of Soviet communism. A sweet young girl in a white dress decorated only with doves stands astride a verdant Europe, as new-grown flowers peek out above the surface. Threatened by storm clouds of the red hammer-and-sickle variety, she protects herself with an umbrella of unity, bearing the flags of the western nations. A "United Europe," in other words, offers a "Guarantee of Peace."
The poster is one in a series published and widely distributed by a little-known organization, "Paix et Liberté." Throughout the 1950s, this organization "participated in American psychological warfare campaigns and the mobilization of Europeans for the anti-communist cause, mixing covert actions with open propaganda." It was "first and foremost, a two-dimensional state-private network" organized "to fight against the dangers of communism" and "to wage the ideological Cold War." Not surprisingly, "the exact circumstances and dynamics behind the creation of Paix et Liberté remain uncertain." Ludwig 2014, 81.
Paix et Liberté began a poster campaign in 1950, ibid. 88, and used the caption "United Europe - Guarantee of Peace" in three different posters thereafter. These posters - including the one here, where the Union Jack is front and center - "went beyond any association with the newly formed European Coal and Steel Community by including the British, Swiss and Swedish flags." Ibid. 89.
The poster is undated, but when it was used as a cover illustration for a later work, the authors reported that it had been published originally by Paix et Liberté in 1951 "as part of a campaign supporting the project of a European Defense Community." Bottici 2013, xiii.
The artist, "Morac," has not been identified. There was at the time a "Jules-Jean Morac" who wrote racy English-language pulp fiction, but others did the cover illustrations for his work, so it is less likely that he was an artist.
For other map posters in the collection produced by the same group, Search > "Paix et Liberté."
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Repository:
- Private Collection of PJ Mode
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.