Dewey, a writer of fiction and nonfiction (
James Stewart), explores the
Evolution of American political cartooning from its origins in the 18th century through its proliferation in the 19th and up to its current state, beleaguered by, among others,
Litigation and political correctness. Dewey's review of racist portraits of blacks and Jews is commonplace, but elsewhere he explores less familiar territory, such as attempts to censor political cartoons. After a lengthy introductory essay, Dewey presents five thematically organized chapters with more than 200 cartoons. The chapter on presidents includes Bill Mauldin's mournful response to JFK's assassination and Doug Marlette's portrayal of Jimmy Carter as the cowardly lion and
Ronald Reagan as the tin man in the 1980 presidential election. The most surprising and clever cartoon in the Wars and Foreign Relations chapter is a 1902 skewering of American imperialism, showing Uncle Sam, dressed as Santa Claus, presenting a gift bag to a suspicious Filipino child. Dewey's chapter prefaces occasionally shed fascinating light; in the chapter on Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Issues, he observes that most 20th-century newspapers have shied away from cartoonists with skeptical views of mainline churches and their espoused Christian values. This will make a nice coffee-table title for political junkies.
(Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Reader ReviewsI've been a big fan of political cartooning for a long time, dating from reading Pogo in the daily papers back in the 1950s, and acquiring Bill Mauldin's two published wartime collections when I was in college. Dewey is a general writer of popular nonfiction, not a specialist in this field, but he does a pretty good job of surveying the history of the editorial cartoonist's art in U.S. history, from Ben Franklin and Paul Revere and Thomas Nast to Herblock and Pat Oliphant and Gary Trudeau. He seeks not only to present telling examples of each artist's work but also each man's influence, why those being lampooned sometimes tried to bring pressure to bear (Patton hated Mauldin and many papers relegated Doonesbury to the editorial section under pressure from advertisers), and how the public's attitudes changed over time. There are some reservations, however. First, not all artists lived or worked in New York or Washington, but you would think so from the selection in this book. Second, he doesn't seem to quite "get it" when he's discussing certain periods of American history, especially the age of imperialist expansion at the turn of the 20th century. (Maybe because, as noted, he's not an historian.) Many of the drawings in the very lengthy introduction are too small to read the text, but don't worry -- they all seem to appear again in the body of the book, which is divided into thematic chapters.
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