From the early 20th century until its demise in 1969, the Saturday Evening Post was one of the most popular general-interest magazines in the United States. It helped construct the worldview of middle America on everything from politics to culture to domestic life. The goal of its most famous editor, George Horace Lorimer, was “to interpret and reflect America to itself,” and thus to produce a magazine that “the entire nation had in common.” This goal of binding the nation together was especially important in wartime. From World War I to the Vietnam era, the magazine’s stories, photographs, cartoons, and editorials helped shape the wartime experience of civilians at home.
The Saturday Evening Post Goes to War will feature the contributions of multiple scholars from such disciplines as journalism, literature, history, rhetorical studies, American studies, and visual studies. Their analyses will use a variety of methodologies and perspectives to investigate the Post’s role on the 20th century home front. Proposals for chapters involving numerous subjects and angles are welcome, including:
- the Post’s role in the lead-up to conflicts, such as isolationist, jingoistic, or anti-war messaging;
- the relationship between the Post and government mobilization and propaganda agencies;
- the Post’s perspective on matters involving race and ethnicity, such as military desegregation, internment of minority populations, or the Americanization of immigrants in the context of wartime;
- the Post’s perspective on gender in wartime, including ideas about masculinity, the role of women, and the work of female journalists;
- the motivation and ideology of the Post’s editorial teams and contributors in wartime;
- the role of the magazine in mobilizing or inspiring the American home front;
- the Post’s contributions to depictions of the military;
- the Post’s construction of images of U.S. enemies and their motivations;
- the Post’s visual contributions to home front culture and context;
- the role of the Post in the resolution of conflict and postwar transitions;
- any of these topic areas in relation to specific conflicts from World War I to the Vietnam conflict.
The completed volume, to be published by a university press, will represent a careful examination of the journalistic ethos, political outlook, and ramifications of the Post’s approach to war in the 20th century. It will appeal to university library collections, larger libraries, and, given the magazine’s cherished role in popular memory, to historically minded readers.
To propose a chapter for this project, please email your proposal to both project editors: Matthew Pressman (matthew.pressman@shu.edu) and Jim Kimble (james.kimble@shu.edu). Proposals must include:
- Suggested chapter title
- Abstract of 700-800 words, describing the proposed topic, sources, and methodology
- Brief bio of the author(s)
The deadline to submit a proposal is February 14, 2022. The editors will notify all correspondents of the status of their submission by March 14, 2022. Completed draft manuscripts will be due by August 31, 2022, with final publication projected to be in early 2024.
About the co-editors:
Matthew Pressman is an assistant professor of journalism at Seton Hall University and the author of On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News (Harvard University Press, 2018). A former editor at Vanity Fair, he has written extensively about the history of the U.S. news media in the 20th century.
James J. Kimble, a professor of communication & the arts at Seton Hall University, is the founding editor of the journal Home Front Studies. His scholarship focuses on propaganda appeals and domestic mobilization on the U.S. home front during World War II.