American War-Time Magazines

a Modest Collection of Magazines from the United States

At the moment there are too few magazines in this collection to make any meaningful observations. Hopefuly this will change as more diverse titles are added. Overall though, it is obvious that the war played a lesser role of importance in the perception of the American public than it did in the warring European countries themselves, an otherwise not unexpected observation. Americn entry into the war did not ultimately rest upon any grave threat to its national existence, as was believed to be the case in many European countries.

Prior to American entry into the war in April 1917, there was at least a token concession to neutrality in the Americn press in that German material was printed almost as readily as Allied material, even though an average reader would have no trouble in discerning obvious pro-Allied sentiments in many of the text articles, if not in the captions and comments of photographs as well. This was certainly the case of 'Poor Little Begium', sympathy for which was almost axiomatic.

Otherwise American magazines devoted a large proportion of their contents to everyday matters unrelated to the war. Getting ahead in life and in business was still more important than fighting to make the world safe for democracy and a surprising amount of space is given over to religious and social matters, the passing of Prohibition laws not one of the least. Advertising was also profuse and plentiful in American magazines, far far more so than in European publications, many of which still seemed to be able to do without or with only a minimal amount. American advertising was also placed throughout magazine publications, from front to back and integrated into lengthy articles, a practise not adhered to in more formalistically designed European publications.

other magazines and periodicals

British Magazines

French Magazines

German and Austrian Magazines

Belgian Magazines

 

*see also Magazines of the Great War (a French site)

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The Press as Affected by the War

 

American Magazines

New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial	The New York Times Sunday Supplement	Collier's
Leslie's	The Literary Digest	The World's Work
The Philadelphia Press	The Red Cross Magazine	New York Tribune History

 

Foreign Language Magazines

Deutsch-Amerika	Nova Era	Milwaukee Germania-Herald

 

 

Russian War-Time Magazines

Lukomorie		Ogonek

Italian War-Time Magazines

la Domenica del Corriere	la Tribuna Illustrata	la Guerra Europea
La Guerra Italiana	l'Illustrazione Italiana

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