Description
Book SynopsisExamines wartime political cartoons—with particular emphasis on the works of James Montgomery Flagg, Dr. Seuss, Ollie Harrington, and Ann Telnaes—to examine how, when, and why graphic caricatures serve to illuminate the US national character.
Trade Review“By examining the editorial cartoons of James Montgomery Flagg, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Ollie Harrington, and Ann Telnaes—whose powerful imagery ‘animated American values in war cultures from the First World War forward’—Gilbert provides a vigorously argued account of the contribution of political cartooning to the construction and deconstruction of contending national myths.”
—Kent Worcester,editor of Silent Agitators: Cartoon Art from the Pages of “New Politics”
“This study offers a valuable extension of the important work of Martha Banta, Henry Wonham, and others who have studied caricature in American culture. Gilbert has read widely in this literature, linking it to critical approaches to humor in general and to new modes of interpreting visual caricature in particular. Just as important, however, is his superb delineation of the ways in which humor has factored in the intricate interplay between national character, global combat, and the dynamics of democratic culture.”
—John Wharton Lowe,author of Calypso Magnolia: The Crosscurrents of Caribbean and Southern Literature
“This is a valuable book about a field that is fading away.”
—J. A. Lent Choice
“Gilbert’s astute analysis of political caricatures as canaries in the coal mine, as warning signals of flaws in the body politic, is revealing. . . . His book represents an important addition to the study of cartoons, American humor, and American political history.”
—Teresa Prados-Torreira Studies in American Humor
