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The Library of Congress apparently does not have a gift for giving things snappy names. But at least it is exact: The LoC's new book from Quirk is titled Presidential Campaign Posters: Two Hundred Years of Election Art. What we have here is an immense book full of "100 Ready-to-Frame Posters" from presidential campaigns throughout American history. And if you're into presidential politics trivia, it's a treasure trove of a book.

Posters proves that the American people have always looked for the same qualities in a presidential candidate: Someone who is at once supernaturally gifted and noble (Andrew Jackson is a "Protector & Defender of Beauty & Booty") and yet still an everyman (Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson are shown dressed in worker's clothes under "The Working-Man's Banner," and Grant is described as ""The Galena Tanner," with Wilson as "The Natick Shoemaker"). It's a duality that's plagued every man in office; they're supposed to somehow be smart but not an intellectual, folksy but not too common, and honest but not a pushover. Most of these portraits show the candidate looking right at the viewer, with honest, smiling eyes. Sometimes, they go too far in this personal direction. One Gerald Ford poster puts the candidate in a leather jacket and white t-shirt, with flowing hair and a thumbs-up, in an amalgamated version of Ford and the Fonz from Happy Days. Below that striking image, the poster reads in large print: "FORDZIE: Happy Days are here again!"

And though every campaign complains about the negative, slimy tones of modern campaign ads, we've always liked our politics a little dirty. A Stevenson poster warns of Eisenhower's "ignorance of domestic, civilian affairs" because he's spent his whole life training for war. More damning, an anti-Jackson poster is thick with tiny type and multiple black coffins; the poster promises to tell the story of "Some account of some of the Bloody Deeds of General Jackson," and how he killed and assaulted men around the country.

Part of the reason I love presidential history is that each president both drives and is driven by the mood of the country at the time they're in office. These posters are a visual representation of America's graphic design and national mood during each race. There's some beautiful illustration in the older pieces, showing Grover Cleveland being welcomed by Columbia, or W.J. Bryan battling a giant malevolent octopus helpfully labeled "TRUSTS." And as the posters get more modern, we see familiar designs of the late 20th century: The Nixon posters are psychedelic, even though Nixon was about the most un-psychedelic man imaginable. Reagan's posters are ugly and ostentatious in that 80s way. Clinton's posters suffer from the bad graphic design that resulted from the dawn of the affordable PC.

And sometimes, you just can't understand what the hell is going on, as in the photo of the Jimmy Carter poster ("J.C. Can Save America!") illustrating this post. Was it ever really okay to conflate Jimmy Carter with Jesus Christ? Sometimes, this country just goes fucking nuts for a little while. Posters is proof that there's nothing new under the sun when it comes to presidential politics. It's a fascinating, comforting, hilarious deep dive into the way we pick (and the way we see) our presidents.