Drawn & Quartered: The History of American Political Cartoons

by Stephen Hess, Sandy Northrop

Chronicles the nation's highs and lows in an extensive collection of cartoons that span the entire history of American political cartooning. The authors note that not all cartoonists have worn white hats many have perpetuated demeaning ethnic stereotypes, slandered honest politicians, and oversimplified complex issues. Nonetheless, most cartoonists pride themselves on attacking honestly, if ruthlessly. This collection humorously recounts some direct hits, recalling the discomfort of the cartoon's targets and the delight of their readers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Journalism, Art

164 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

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Reviews

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great overview with illustrations, by the author of the earlier history, The Ungentlemanly Art.
There is a great bibliography, and great illustrations. In the text,there are some minor errors in dates and sometimes spelling. Not to worry: in the time since this was published, the need to celebrate these cartoonists ha grown, as the print journalism field has shrunk, and the web expanded.
Highly recommended.

[Laura Battle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this went to the present time.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review title: Too short and too small
This book serves only as an introduction and outline to the topic of American political cartooning, and suffers from being both too short and too small.

Too short--since much of the 150 pages are given over to reproducing the cartoons, there is little room for the history of the field of cartooning, the artists, and the subject matter down through the last 250 years. And in fact, because of the shortness of space, it seems that the authors spend more time introducing the subject matter of cartooning than they do talking about the cartoons or cartoonists who create them. For exxample, the text takes a paragraph to explain the O. J. Simpson trial, but the book reproduces only one cartoon about the trial, and none of the background about how cartoonists overall handled the trial and the aftermath. At only 163 pages, when many non-fiction books run twice or three times that, it seems like there would have been room for more pages, more history, and more cartoons without breaking backs or budgets..

Too small--the book format is only 5 x 8 and most of the cartoon reproduced are quarter-page size or less, an odd choice for a book about a medium that originally appeared on newspaper pages in spaces typically larger and sometimes much larger than that. The small reproductions make it impossible to read some of the text or see some of the detailed background of the drawings, which can be key to understanding, especially in the older cartoons that often used more and finer background detail and text. Perhaps the publisher and the writers didn't want the size and cost of a coffee-table book, but that size would have fit the subject format better.

So if you want a quick-brush introduction to American political cartooning, this would be a starting place, but not the place you'd likely end up. In fact, if anyone knows of a more detiled study of the topic that is longer and larger, comment below with a link to it.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid introduction to the subject. More like 3 1/2 stars for the text, but the cartoons were well selected and hence I round up.