Fit Men Wanted

Book excerpt: The best of the Imperial War Museum’s collection of more than 30,000 British wartime proclamations, all from the First and Second World Wars. “Eat Less Bread,” “Beer: A Necessity to the Strength of Britain,” “The Fight Is Now,” “Fit Men Wanted,” “Victory is in the Kitchen,” “We Need the Woman”: such stirring messages exhorted British citizens to do their bit for the country’s war effort. Today they seem charmingly innocent, quintessentially English, and often very funny, and the posters that bear the slogans are a treasury of vintage graphics. Like the much-loved “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster, these proclamations are just what one needs to keep a stiff upper lip and a sense of humor in our own times.