Sydney H. Reisenberg, Over the Top for You, Buy U.S. Gov't Bonds, Third Liberty Loan, 1918, poster, 30 1/16 x 20 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art.
An "over-the-top" achievement came out of the horrifically challenging conditions of World War I's trench warfare. This weary-eyed solder surges "over the top" into great vulnerability, and likely, into his own mortality at the end of the Great War. He martials an animated, roiling American Flag to inspire onlookers, be they friend or foe. You can almost read the vowels his mouth is forming: "Onward!" "Open fire!" With serene urgency, he implores Americans to invest in their soldiers and to rise up to the demands of their nation's future.