Richard H. Minear

Before he was a beloved children's author, Dr Seuss was a political cartoon. Those are words to inspire terror, because we all no that there is no such thing as A Good Cartoon, and that in the infinite parade of Lesters, McCoys, Asays, and Ramirezes, There is Always More and it is Always Worse. Thank the almighty Bors that Seuss remains Seussian, even when dealing with various serious subjects like Hitler and WW2.

Really, there is nothing as delightfully Suessian as Hitler's dachsund powered show more war machine stalling in the Russian winter, or Benito Mussolini as a propped up, battered, relic addressing an empty square. Seuss goes after fascists overseas and at home, excoriating isolationists like Charles Limbaugh for abandoning the world to monsters, while at the same time demanding an all-out effort to win the war, by bringing Labor and African Americans into the war effort. The only sour note are the depictions of the Japanese. It's a shame that a man could produce a cartoon about driving out the bug of racial prejudice one week, and then show the Japanese as slant-eyed monkey devils the next. But that's why history is history. An essential book for adult lovers of Dr Seuss, political cartoon aficionados, and WW2 buffs. show less

As we sit on the brink of WWIII (or far in its depths according to some sources) reading this collection of Dr. Seuss's editorial cartoons from the WWII era is especially poignant. Written and illustrated during the mid-point of his career they come as no surprise , I'm sure, to any reader of his books with half a brain - tepid children's stories they are not (always) and his comics provide a medium for even more pointed jabs at the establishment, the status quo, and the general laziness in show more society. Unfortunately, hindsight may be 20/20, but we don't seem to have learned much... show less

The political comics of Theodor Geisel are presented in this book with enough background, commentary, and context to be really appreciated. The political points being promoted by each comic aren't always obvious, and Richard Minear's elaborations are as illuminating as they are concise.

He also doesn't sugar-coat or excuse the problems of Mr. Geisel's work, pointing out how Geisel addressed racism against Jewish and Black people while also being unselfconsciously racist against Japanese show more people (including Japanese-Americans).

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I learned much more about World War II (and especially domestic US politics at the time) from it than I had expected to. show less

With few exceptions, this is quite an excellent collection. It's also one hell of a condemnation of American's pre-1941 apathy towards Hitler and his victims. Americans still view brutal dictators as "not their problem" until the problem is more direct to their own interests, so his cartoons are still relevant in this way.