The political portrait: leadership, image and power

Portraits of United States presidents and national candidates past and present / Steven Seidman -- Faces of Mao / Stefan Landsberger -- Political portraiture in early republican Turkey : Mustafa Atatürk and İsmet İnönü / Christopher Wilson & Sinan Niyazioglu.

The leader's portrait, produced in a variety of media (statues, coins, billboards, posters, stamps), is a key instrument of propaganda in totalitarian regimes, but increasingly also dominates political communication in democratic countries as a result of the personalization and spectacularization of campaigning. Written by an international group of contributors, this volume focuses on the last one hundred years, covering a wide range of countries around the globe, and dealing with dictatorial regimes and democratic systems alike. As well as discussing the effigies that are produced by the powers that be for propaganda purposes, it looks at the uses of portraiture by antagonistic groups or movements as forms of resistance, derision, denunciation and demonization.