Herblock: The Life and Works of the Great Political Cartoonist

by Haynes Johnson, Harry Katz (Editor)

There was no one like him. Throughout a career spanning seventy-two years and thirteen American presidents, Herblock’s spare, folksy cartoons made complex issues seem simple and moral choices clear. Syndicated throughout the country, his cartoons focused on important issues of the time, making Americans take note of the human folly that is politics.

Published in conjunction with a Library of Congress exhibition chronicling his life and times, Herblock will warm the hearts of all who have followed his work in the past and serve as an introduction of his work to a new generation. It is a celebration of his life that reinforces the importance of editorial cartoons as a vital means for expressing political opinion in America. Haynes Johnson provides a reverent and insightful biography, while Harry Katz places Herblock and his work in context. In addition to more than two hundred fifty cartoons in the text, a DVD containing more than 18,000 cartoons completes the collection.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

In his four decades in journalism, Mr. Johnson was widely esteemed for his coverage of domestic affairs in general and of the capital in particular.

source

Reviews

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What terrific cartoons! Herblock was almost always on the right side of whatever position, except for his odd fondness for Herbert Hoover. Also, I think his habit of clearly labeling every symbol in his drawings inspired the Onion cartoonist, which isn't exactly something you would want to do.
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I love the cartoons, which are sharp, true, and funny. One of my favorites is from 1942: Eleanor Roosevelt is in a small Navy craft somewhere in the bleak Atlantic in the dead of night, with a company of G.I.'s and captured, scared Nazis. Wearing her combat helmet with style, while at the same time knitting socks for soldiers, she dictates to her secretary (also in a combat helmet), "My day has been rather a busy one..."
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His last cartoon was published August 26, 2001. It lampooned Bush's foreign policy. Sixteen days later, on 9/11, we needed him more than ever. But after a career spanning 72 years and thirteen presidents, Herbert Block died on October 7th, 2001. He had Done His Part.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of political cartooning and there were none better at it than Herblock.

For those of you who don't know him, Herb Block, a.k.a., "Herblock" was a force of nature in political cartooning from his debut in the late 1920s until his death in 2001. For most of his career, he worked for The Washington Post — where he was given complete freedom to choose his subjects as he wished — while also in syndication. As one would expect, he had the opportunity to opine on a great many subjects including the Great Depression, FDR, the New Deal, the rise and fall of fascism, post-war America, the Communism scare of the 1950s, Vietnam, Watergate, and the Reagan era. That is a lot of material. But he seems to have saved his best work for skewering Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon. You have to love him for that alone.

This book thoroughly and admirably covers Herblock's many years of service in showing the emperor — liberal and conservative — with no clothes, with over 200 of Herblock's best cartoons in the text (along with excellent descriptions of their context) and a DVD containing over 18,000 of his other cartoons. But, more importantly, this book provided context on the man himself and how he came to be one of the purest voices for justice and against the ills of our society that America has ever known. And it also serves as a great history lesson through eight decades of the American experience.

[Lance Schonberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herblock is a collection of political cartoons, sprinkled with some biography and history text, by one of the most famous and longest writing political cartoonists of the United States, Herbert Lawrence Block. Three Pulitzers and a variety of other rewards marked moments in a career spanning decades. He spent those decades drawing people's attention to things the leaders of American society and the world, the powerful and the influential and the rich, thought they were getting away with.

Mostly, but not completely, chronological, the book takes the time to cover a lot of major periods and subjects from the Great Depression through the Clinton Years. For me, being only in my 40s, much of the book qualifies as history. It's not until we get into the Reagan years that I start remembering things first hand and the book speaks to me a little more personally, although anything in the so-called Vietnam era was still pretty extensively dealt with in media when I was growing up, so I have a some recollective basis there, too.

By dates given (usually print dates of the cartoons), Herblock was often ahead of the curve in recognizing a danger or issue for what it truly was—Nazism, McCarthyism (a term he actually coined) in particular—and he never shied away from any issue. No subject was off limits if he felt it needed a light shined on it, economic, political, or social. And, though he was a master of shadow and shading in his work, Herblock shined a lot of lights during his career, frequently in places where some people wished he wouldn't.

From the cartoons presented in the book (there are 200 or 300 hundred picked by the biographer and editor), there are some themes that stick out to me: ethics, extremism, environmentalism. Ethics may be the big one. It seems to me Herblock had an expectation that public figures should be held to a higher standard than they typically demonstrated, and he was quick to point that out, especially when they screwed up in a big way. Like the rest of us, he must have been frequently disappointed with the behaviour he commented on, but he never seemed to lower his standards.

There's a cd with the book, containing more than 18,000 cartoons and spanning his whole career. It may be that there are more themes to be found in exploring this huge volume of material, and it will probably be a longer term read for me, covering a huge swath of 20th century history.

Herblock is a fairly quick read. Overall, text density is low, though this is variable. Early in the book, we're treated to a little bit of biographical information and the first few cartoons are surrounded by it. There's also a block of text introducing each section, and a lot of cartoons get more than a sentence or two of context.

Actually, I think there's a little too much background information given with some of the cartoons. While I understand the desire to provide historical for a younger audience, I also think the editor needed to consider that whatever audience is going to pick up a book like this is going to be at least lightly informed or capable of wrapping its mind around a little bit of context instead of a huge introduction or provided subtext to a single frame cartoon. This is a minor quibble, over all. If you don't need the context for a particular era, you can likely just enjoy the cartoons for what they are.

I did appreciate that the selection of cartoons was a little less US-centric than you might expect overall. While Herblock spent a great deal of time criticizing US policy, both foreign and domestic, he hit world events with a great deal of frequency, having a wider view of what was important to the American people than many of the country's leaders may have. He may have helped keep his nation's perspective just a little broader.

Overall rating: 4 stars. Whether the sample of cartoons in the book is representative of Herblock's work and themes or consists of favourites cherry-picked by the author and editor is more or less irrelevant. It's an interesting, entertaining look at 20th century history through the mind of a talented political cartoonist. It also demonstrates an old cliché very well: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Gail Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can you do? When it comes to national politics and politicians sometimes all we can do is cry or laugh. Thank goodness for the late great editorial cartoonist Herb Block who helped us laugh in both the best of times and the worst of times. Yes, we chuckled whether it was at Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, the Great Depression, the New Deal or the atomic age. Block's work, which covered nearly 75 years serves as a record of our history, pinpointing events that shaped our country politically, culturally, and socially.

Words cannot describe Block's contributions but reproductions of his cartoons found in HERBLOCK surely do. We're reminded of how his work influenced both politicians and public opinion when we note that in the early 1930's with Hitler on the horizon Block warned of the Nazi menace. He revealed Huey Long for who he truly was portraying Long screaming into a microphone as before him a figure wrapped in chains represented Louisiana.

There was little that he did not tackle and for this he received numerous honors plus three Pulitzer Prizes as well as a place in the hearts and minds of countless Americans.

HERBLOCK offers some 200 of Block's cartoons presented in historic order plus a DVD containing 18,000 cartoons. A magnificent collection and apt tribute to an iconic thinker and artist!

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book at a silent auction. It is a mini biography and compilation of some of HerBlock's best political cartoons. I read the entire book. It was great in that it organized his work and place in history when the cartoons were drawn. I particularly liked how Johnson organized the cartoons into topic areas - The Great Depression, The Rise of Fascism, The Cold War, McCarthyism, Civil Rights, the Sixties, Nixon and Watergate, Reagan, and Clinton Bush. There is also a CD included with the book with over 18,000 of his cartoons. I haven't yet looked at the CD, but look forward to doing so based on the cartoons that are printed in this book. It would make a great coffee-table book if you are into that sort of thing (and of course have a coffee table, which I don't have)! :-)

[Amy Paget · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for an adult level book that could be explored and enjoyed amidst distractions...and Herblock: The life and work of the great policitcal cartoonist, is just such a title. Block chronicled American political life from the great depression to the Bush administration. The book is wonderful and was produced in conjunction with a Library of Congress exhibition celebrating the centenary of his birth. See the exhibit online here: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/her.... Extensive commentary accompanies the cartoons providing background to the controversies covered by the cartoons. The book is accompanied by a cartoon cd

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only bad thing about this book is that we have changed so little in the last 60 years. Cartoons Herblock drew in 1930, 1940, 1950 and beyond are still relevant today. Herblock was a genius. If only we'd listened to him more.