Despite what you've seen on TV and the movies, there were no "wanted" posters in the Old West. (The first one--advising the public about a "notorious" draft dodger--didn't appear until 1917.) From precursors such as runaway slave notices up to the recent "Iraq's Most Wanted" playing cards distributed to soldiers in the Mideast, shows how "wanted" posters have developed as an iconic American print genre. The use and history of these posters, suggests the author, helps us understand contemporary American fantasies of vulnerability and the increasingly pervasive security measures taken against domestic and foreign enemies. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)