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Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons
Thomas Nast (1840-1902), the founding father of American political cartooning, is perhaps best known for his cartoons portraying political parties as the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant. Nast's legacy also includes a trove of other political cartoons, his successful attack on the machine politics of Tammany Hall in 1871, and his wildly popular illustrations of Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly magazine. Throughout his career, his drawings provided a pointed critique that forced readers to confront the contradictions around them.
In this thoroughgoing and lively biography, Fiona Deans Halloran focuses not just on Nast's political cartoons for Harper's but also on his place within the complexities of Gilded Age politics and highlights the many contradictions in his own he was an immigrant who attacked immigrant communities, a supporter of civil rights who portrayed black men as foolish children in need of guidance, and an enemy of corruption and hypocrisy who idolized Ulysses S. Grant. He was a man with powerful friends, including Mark Twain, and powerful enemies, including William M. "Boss" Tweed. Halloran interprets Nast's work, explores his motivations and ideals, and illuminates Nast's lasting legacy on American political culture.
In this thoroughgoing and lively biography, Fiona Deans Halloran focuses not just on Nast's political cartoons for Harper's but also on his place within the complexities of Gilded Age politics and highlights the many contradictions in his own he was an immigrant who attacked immigrant communities, a supporter of civil rights who portrayed black men as foolish children in need of guidance, and an enemy of corruption and hypocrisy who idolized Ulysses S. Grant. He was a man with powerful friends, including Mark Twain, and powerful enemies, including William M. "Boss" Tweed. Halloran interprets Nast's work, explores his motivations and ideals, and illuminates Nast's lasting legacy on American political culture.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 7, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 28, 2022
Dr. Halloran frequently mentions a 1904 biography about Thomas Nast that was written by Albert Bigelow Paine. Quite a number of years ago, I read Mr. Paine’s work because his book was the only one I could find about the history-making cartoonist. Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, it was more a hagiography than a biography, built on discussions the author had with Thomas Nast when the famous political cartoonist was sixty. Mr. Paine was a huge fan of Mr. Nast and it showed in the treacle product he wrote. Therefore, I was thrilled and hopeful when I discovered Ms. Halloran wrote a contemporary biography about Thomas Nast. Over a hundred years between the biographies about such a transformative person was a bloody shame. Dr. Halloran’s book was published in 2012. It is not a humongous beast at just shy of three-hundred-pages long.
Beyond Mr. Nast’s nostalgic whitewashed discussions with Paine, there was no information about the cartoonist’s childhood. However, there was plenty of material about New York City during the mid-eighteen hundreds for Ms. Halloran to investigate and theorize on what kind of life surrounded the young Nast. The beginning of the book relies on some speculation about the young German immigrant. After the age of fifteen, however, the story lands on firmer ground with a solid explanation of Nast’s life. It focuses much more on his career than family life. ‘Thomas Nast’ covers such things as the cartoonist’s evolution from sentimental creations to more trenchant political satire; his anti-slavery stances; the Draft Riots of 1863; his most impactful cartoons; President depictions from Lincoln through to Theodore Roosevelt; his attacks on the highly corrupt Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall; quirky publisher Horace Greely; his long relationship with Harper’s Weekly; how he inspired today’s traditional norms about Santa Claus and Christmas; the creation of the donkey and elephant symbols that have been adopted by the Republicans and Democrats; his strong anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudices; the Civil War; and numerous hardships he faced in his last years. Man, Nast certainly had a blind spot about his hero Ulysses S. Grant when it came to the administration’s many corrupt shenanigans. Nast lived in a time that had strong divisions involving politics, ethnicity, religion, and national identity. The cartoonist had plenty of political material to work with. The book includes numerous black-and-white illustrations scattered throughout it as well as two photographs (one of him and the other his house.)
Thomas Nast lived from 1840 to 1902. It was a period where print ruled. As the author aptly states, “He became a man whose work could change minds, topple leaders, and influence elections. No mere editorial, Nast’s cartoons captured public attention and inspired public outrage.” The celebrity cartoonist viewed the greatest evils to be violence, hypocrisy, and greed. Dr. Halloran shows Thomas Nast as all too human and representative of the times in which he lived. The author has written a highly-readable biography that is a huge improvement over Mr. Paine’s book. While I prefer the cartoon style of Nast’s competitor Joseph Keppler more than his technique, I recognize Thomas Nast’s large impact in the field of editorial cartooning. ‘Thomas Nast’ is worth reading to understand his impact during very trying times in U.S. history.
P.S. In case you were wondering, the book also does not address the origin of the word ‘nasty’ because it has nothing to do with Thomas Nast.
Beyond Mr. Nast’s nostalgic whitewashed discussions with Paine, there was no information about the cartoonist’s childhood. However, there was plenty of material about New York City during the mid-eighteen hundreds for Ms. Halloran to investigate and theorize on what kind of life surrounded the young Nast. The beginning of the book relies on some speculation about the young German immigrant. After the age of fifteen, however, the story lands on firmer ground with a solid explanation of Nast’s life. It focuses much more on his career than family life. ‘Thomas Nast’ covers such things as the cartoonist’s evolution from sentimental creations to more trenchant political satire; his anti-slavery stances; the Draft Riots of 1863; his most impactful cartoons; President depictions from Lincoln through to Theodore Roosevelt; his attacks on the highly corrupt Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall; quirky publisher Horace Greely; his long relationship with Harper’s Weekly; how he inspired today’s traditional norms about Santa Claus and Christmas; the creation of the donkey and elephant symbols that have been adopted by the Republicans and Democrats; his strong anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudices; the Civil War; and numerous hardships he faced in his last years. Man, Nast certainly had a blind spot about his hero Ulysses S. Grant when it came to the administration’s many corrupt shenanigans. Nast lived in a time that had strong divisions involving politics, ethnicity, religion, and national identity. The cartoonist had plenty of political material to work with. The book includes numerous black-and-white illustrations scattered throughout it as well as two photographs (one of him and the other his house.)
Thomas Nast lived from 1840 to 1902. It was a period where print ruled. As the author aptly states, “He became a man whose work could change minds, topple leaders, and influence elections. No mere editorial, Nast’s cartoons captured public attention and inspired public outrage.” The celebrity cartoonist viewed the greatest evils to be violence, hypocrisy, and greed. Dr. Halloran shows Thomas Nast as all too human and representative of the times in which he lived. The author has written a highly-readable biography that is a huge improvement over Mr. Paine’s book. While I prefer the cartoon style of Nast’s competitor Joseph Keppler more than his technique, I recognize Thomas Nast’s large impact in the field of editorial cartooning. ‘Thomas Nast’ is worth reading to understand his impact during very trying times in U.S. history.
P.S. In case you were wondering, the book also does not address the origin of the word ‘nasty’ because it has nothing to do with Thomas Nast.
November 8, 2023
Thomas Nast is a footnote in history to most, but was a massive name at the tail end of the 19th Century. Today, we best know him for his etchings of Santa Claus. The German-born Nast created the archetype of Santa, and in so doing elevated Christmas to the massive holiday that it is now. One might even plausibly argue that Nast helped spark the orgy of capitalist excess that is the Christmas season.
He was a complicated man. His early drawings pillory Irish immigrants to New York City as boorish, drunken louts, woefully unsophisticated. Nast also was an abolitionist who advanced the case of freedmen and women after the Civil War. His influential cartoons brought down at least one political candidate, and arguably a second. He destroyed the graft and greed of the Tweed ring. He revered Grant, even when Grant's two-terms in office began to be overshadowed by several scandals.
In short, this book is a concise biography that avoids academic language and is easy to read. I have deducted a star because I found myself wanting to know much more about Thomas Nast. Passages from Nast's own writings and his correspondence with others would have demonstrated more of Nast's outsized personality. And the ending is a tad abrupt.
He was a complicated man. His early drawings pillory Irish immigrants to New York City as boorish, drunken louts, woefully unsophisticated. Nast also was an abolitionist who advanced the case of freedmen and women after the Civil War. His influential cartoons brought down at least one political candidate, and arguably a second. He destroyed the graft and greed of the Tweed ring. He revered Grant, even when Grant's two-terms in office began to be overshadowed by several scandals.
In short, this book is a concise biography that avoids academic language and is easy to read. I have deducted a star because I found myself wanting to know much more about Thomas Nast. Passages from Nast's own writings and his correspondence with others would have demonstrated more of Nast's outsized personality. And the ending is a tad abrupt.
August 28, 2024
A decent biography overall. I did feel that it got bogged down in the political mire a few times, although the detail did help me to really understand the situation of the times. I wish there had been just a little bit less on elections and a little more on Boss Tweed. Also, the author mentioned how he was a family man, but failed to really describe his family. I had to google how many children he even had. Some more information on his personal life and family would have been nice. Nevertheless, this was a good introduction to the life of Thomas Nast.
December 14, 2022
GREAT, INFLUENTIAL LITERATURE.
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January 15, 2014
Thomas Nast is most remembered for his editorial cartoons of Boss Tweed--cartoons that Tweed himself believed led to his downfall. At one point he offered Nast $500,000 to go to Europe and take art classes and stop doing his cartooning. That is equivalent to many fortunes today.
Nast, a German immigrant, had a natural talent for cartooning--and calling his detailed illustrations cartoons does not quite describe them. He was staunchly Republican and liberal and knew what he wanted his cartoons to say. He supported Lincoln, abolition, Ulysses S. Grant helping. He also created the image of Santa Claus that we know today.
This book is a look at mid-19th century journalism, politics, and changing times.
Nast, a German immigrant, had a natural talent for cartooning--and calling his detailed illustrations cartoons does not quite describe them. He was staunchly Republican and liberal and knew what he wanted his cartoons to say. He supported Lincoln, abolition, Ulysses S. Grant helping. He also created the image of Santa Claus that we know today.
This book is a look at mid-19th century journalism, politics, and changing times.
May 5, 2015
Lynda Pflueger has done an admirable job of researching the life of political cartoonist Thomas Nast. Her work not only concentrates on his famous political cartoons in New York but also discusses his Santa depictions and struggles later in life. I learned much more about this famous cartoonist than any previous history of the era. Perhaps one element that might have improved this biography is a discussion among experts in the field about Nast's legacy to the profession.
October 7, 2017
This is typically the kind of book that I'd read because I found it on sale at a used bookstore for a dollar, but I actually sought this one out. I enjoy modern political cartoons, and I've always known of Thomas Nast as a pioneer in that field and I wanted to learn more about him.
This biography, by Fiona Deans Halloran, was interesting at times but also frustrating. I imagine the author was frustrated too, especially at the lack of available information about Nast's youth. She's forced to spend the early chapters trying to reconstruct his childhood by researching the New York City neighborhood he lived in, and imagining how Nast may have experienced that neighborhood.
When the story gets to Nast's adult life, there's obviously more material available, particularly the art that he produced. But the story is still frustrating, and that's not entirely the author's fault. Nast's cartoons are so dated by now that it's hard to see the humor in them that his contemporaries saw. We also don't get any kind of a sense of the state of political cartooning before Nast, so we can't grasp in what ways he was innovative. The book doesn't include any samples of the works of his competitors, so we can't judge Nast in relation to them either. Nast was clearly popular and influential, in a way that no political cartoonist of today can ever hope to be, but his popularity is something that we have to accept, but can't really understand.
The book has many examples of Nast's cartoons, and I'm impressed by how well he shades and defines contour by cross-hatching. He was clearly very skillful with a pen, although Halloran keeps mentioning his "pencil", which makes me wonder about Nast's actual technique. For a book about an artist, there was very little information about his artistic process. There's plenty about his politics, but much less about his cartooning, and in a book about a political cartoonist, that means that half the story is largely overlooked. There was also very little information about how Nast's cartoons were reproduced for publication, which was, to me, one of the most frustrating things about the book. Are the cartoons I'm looking at the direct product of Nast's hand, or am I only seeing the product of anonymous engravers who reproduced the original to prepare it for the printing press? I found myself wondering that throughout the book. (I tried searching the Internet for more information, and I found a lot of information about 19th Century printing methods, but I didn't find anything that definitively told me how Nast's cartoons were reproduced.)
So, yeah, the book was frustrating. I enjoyed reading it, and I'm glad I did, but the accumulated annoyances prevent me from giving it any more than three stars.
This biography, by Fiona Deans Halloran, was interesting at times but also frustrating. I imagine the author was frustrated too, especially at the lack of available information about Nast's youth. She's forced to spend the early chapters trying to reconstruct his childhood by researching the New York City neighborhood he lived in, and imagining how Nast may have experienced that neighborhood.
When the story gets to Nast's adult life, there's obviously more material available, particularly the art that he produced. But the story is still frustrating, and that's not entirely the author's fault. Nast's cartoons are so dated by now that it's hard to see the humor in them that his contemporaries saw. We also don't get any kind of a sense of the state of political cartooning before Nast, so we can't grasp in what ways he was innovative. The book doesn't include any samples of the works of his competitors, so we can't judge Nast in relation to them either. Nast was clearly popular and influential, in a way that no political cartoonist of today can ever hope to be, but his popularity is something that we have to accept, but can't really understand.
The book has many examples of Nast's cartoons, and I'm impressed by how well he shades and defines contour by cross-hatching. He was clearly very skillful with a pen, although Halloran keeps mentioning his "pencil", which makes me wonder about Nast's actual technique. For a book about an artist, there was very little information about his artistic process. There's plenty about his politics, but much less about his cartooning, and in a book about a political cartoonist, that means that half the story is largely overlooked. There was also very little information about how Nast's cartoons were reproduced for publication, which was, to me, one of the most frustrating things about the book. Are the cartoons I'm looking at the direct product of Nast's hand, or am I only seeing the product of anonymous engravers who reproduced the original to prepare it for the printing press? I found myself wondering that throughout the book. (I tried searching the Internet for more information, and I found a lot of information about 19th Century printing methods, but I didn't find anything that definitively told me how Nast's cartoons were reproduced.)
So, yeah, the book was frustrating. I enjoyed reading it, and I'm glad I did, but the accumulated annoyances prevent me from giving it any more than three stars.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews