No known survivors; David Levine's political plank

If Levine wasn't the greatest political caricaturist of the twentieth century, his rivals for the position could be sent in on a postcard. He combined a rather Victorian style of drawing with a contemporary whimsy to good effect. He is most associated with the lefty New York Review of Books, but he often demonstrates only a mild agenda which has aged well (well, usually--sixties leftists were off-target with devices such as Barry Goldwater's Nazi salute and Hubert Humphrey with a Hitler mustache). The book's minimal, occasionally wry captions could probably be a little more informative for younger readers, if any; almost all of the figures depicted will be familiar to the middle-aged and beyond, but even for them there are a few head-scratchers. ( )