ReviewIt’s hard to imagine a book on this topic that’s better than
Drawn and Quartered. Authors Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop have formulated a history that is lucid, authoritative, and fun. The profuse illustrations are, as one would expect, varied and entertaining. Even better, the cartoons featured do an magnificent occupation of demonstrating the evolution of political cartooning from Ben Franklin (America’s primary editorial cartoonist) to the present.
Hess and Northrop do an splendid occupation of relating cartoons to the political and social climate in which they were created. For example, “Caricatures of [Martin Luther] King, Malcolm X, and the other African American leaders who rose to prominence [in the 1950s and 1960s] are hard to find. Cartoonists and their newsprints grew so sensible to the volatility of caricaturing black leaders, fearing that they would be sensed as racial slurs…. Instead, cartoonists employed generic situations and peopled them with generic black figures. Martin Luther King Jr. became an invisible man in the cartoons of the [era].”
Readers casually fascinated in the topic will find Drawn and Quartered an agreeably diverting and distinguishable book. Aficionados will be satisfied with the book’s sagacity and depth, and may even discover illustrators that they did not know. All will agree that Hess and Northrop is worthy of a round of applause. –Michael Gerber
From Publishers WeeklyAlthough this book does not assert to be exhaustive, it offers an agreeably diverting and enlightening survey of American political cartoons, illustrated by 269 examples from colonial times to the present. In their introduction, Hess (The Ungentlemanly Art of Political Cartooning) and Northrop, a PBS writer/producer, remind us of the political cartoon’s role, from Thomas Nast’s attacks on Tammany Hall to David Levine’s unforgettable effigy of Lyndon Johnson pointing to a gallbladder-operation scar shaped like Vietnam. The writers proceed chronologically, explaining how Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty and John Q. Public entered national iconography, and they show how contemporary cartoonists reinterpret older images?as when Paul Conrad’s tattooed Ronald Reagan borrowed from an 1884 Puck image. While the writers do not neglect underappreciated cartoonists like the groundbreaking African American Oliver Harrington, they cover all the recent greats; WWII imageer Bill Mauldin; Washington fixture Herblock; inner monologuist Jules Feiffer; Pat Oliphant, who uses an alter ego penguin commentator. The writers note that the rise of CNN and attendant American consciousness has permitted cartoonists to broaden their vision and comment more often times on world events; still, as they lament, the rise of syndicates and the decreasing number of newsprints have shrunk the market for cartoonists.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review>From Benjamin Franklin’s drawing of the initial American political cartoon in 1754 to Herblock’s blistering attacks on the democratic routine today, editorial cartoons have been a mainstay of American journalism and politics. Drawn & Quartered chronicles the nation’s highs and lows in an spacious collection of cartoons that span the entire history of American political cartooning. Cartoonists capture our imagination with charecters and symbols that speak at once to our heads, hearts, and senses of humor. Through skillful juxtaposition of pictures and words, cartoonists galvanize public opinion for or versus their subjects. In the routine they have revealed truths in regards to ourselves and our democratic system that have been both embarrassing and ennobling. Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop note that not all cartoonists have worn white hats. Many have perpetuated demeaning ethnic stereotypes, slandered honorable politicians, and oversimplified complex issues. Nonetheless, most cartoonists pride themselves on attacking candidly — if ruthlessly. Drawn & Quartered demonstrates and documents the cartoonists’ capacity to capture the essence of key moments and political cartoons that have shaped American history. Drawn & Quartered is fantasti recreational reading in it is own right, and a necessary, severe study for any person with an interest in American political history. — Midwest Book Review
Both agreeably diverting and educational.