This was not a book that had been sitting on my to-read shelf. I hadn't even known this book existed until I looked for non-fiction books available on Kindle Unlimited. I was immediately interested. Dr. Seuss is definitely what one would refer to as a "household name". You most likely grew up learning to read from such stories like "Green Eggs and Ham", "The Cat in the Hat", "Horton Hears a Who" and of course "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas." Your children probably learned to read from these books, if not at home than at school. Of course we've also all seen the classic Christmas movie rendition of "Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and probably the page to screen adaptions (of which their are many) of his other works.

Dr. Suess writes and illustrates lyrical and whimsical childrens books. He draws up interesting characters that catches the eye. He created words for goodness sake. He does not "go to war".

At least I didn't think so.

This book details his work from when he worked at PM magazine making drawings inspired by the political U.S climate of the time and of course the war itself.

It was interesting and informative and a little...boring. Repetitive too. It didn't take long for the book to start to drag and to start to feel like an over drawn out history lessen. I wanted so badly to like this book, but it was an effort to finish it.

This is a lovely analysis of Dr. Suess' time as a political cartoonist, something I was totally unaware of before reading this book. It is a well thought out exploration of a period in Dr. Suess' life that had a great impact on his later work. I can see him and all of his beloved books in a completely different light now. It's great!

Interesting to see many of Dr. Seuss's wartime comics, however the actual text doesn't provide a whole lot of background. A majority of the text just describes what's in a specific comic in the book everything you can see for yourself. It's occasionally helpful when certain people are mentioned it will describe who they are eg. Owners of specific newspapers who Dr. Seuss was calling out. Also the text does point out Dr. Seuss's racist caricatures of Japan and Japanese people, but never really does much of an in depth analysis, only saying that it wasn't that bad compared to other cartoonists of the times.

The book is interesting, and the text is helpful if you don't know what or who is being referenced in a comic. I recommend reading the section of comics in a chapter before reading the text instead of constantly flipping back and forth.

A collection of the good doctor’s cartoons for the newspaper/magazine ‘PM’ during the Second World War.

The bulk of the book is taken up by the comics themselves but there is a quick bio of this period of Suess’s life (did not realise that he’d already been writing children’s books by the time he was doing these cartoons) and a bit of commentary on each of the cartoons themselves.

Much of the commentary is not entirely necessary as it just describes the content of the cartoons (which you can see with your own eyes). It’s occasionally useful for providing historical context, identifying some of the maybe lesser-known figures represented, or again looking at Dr Seuss’s approach to issues. There’s some comment in particular on his attitude towards race as he seemed to fight against anti-Semitism and racism towards black Americans but engaged in fairly blatant racism towards Japanese Americans. A blind spot presumably created/fueled by the need to demonise the 'other' during war.

On a lighter note, you can see early versions of a few of Seuss’s creations like Yertle the Turtle and Cat in the Hat, and his mix of social conscience and oddball humour is already well established.

A side of Dr. Seuss and a take on the 1940s that I had not previously seen. Dr. Seuss was of course a more complex than current critics would have you believe. This book reveals other dimensions of him through his wartime political cartoons for PM. (Also the origins of Yertle and the Whos in Who-ville!)

WARNING: you will see Dr. Seuss in a very different context - time and cultural attitudes have to be taken into consideration. For those who would like to know more about how the good doctor evolved his artistic style this will be a very interesting read. Some of the cartoons in here are truly heartbreaking - war will always have too much power over us.

Good reference, but as useful as a political cartoon.

A collection of fascinating cartoons put into historical context by Richard H. Minear. I learned a huge amount about the era--that people really had no idea about the concentration camps, that industry was scared to integrate factory lines because of fear of riots, and that rape was viewed quite casually. The various writers commented on Dr. Seuss' hatred of the Japanese, but when I mentioned it to the retired professors at the faculty club, they said everyone did back then.

This gave me pause, because Dr. Seuss was quite progressive for his time, hating racism against blacks and Jews. Those types of racism are certainly weaker than what they were, but they are certainly still around. Racism against the Japanese is mostly gone. I found myself thinking these thoughts as I ate the dinner I cooked of sushi rice, green beans in a tofu dressing, and potatoes tossed in a soy-butter sauce. I learned how to make these dishes from "Harumi's Everyday Cooking," a popular Japanese cookbook for a Western audience.

The one serious drawback is Minear's literalism. Several of Dr. Seuss' books, for example "Yertle the Turtle" and "Horton Hears a Who," grew out of his WWII experiences. Minear says that Yertle is Hitler, rather than understanding that Yertle is a dictator. Hitler might have been the inspiration, but Seuss' thinking had generalized to dictators in general. He also says that Japan is the set of very small people in "Horton Hears a Who," so that Horton must be the United States. Seuss was inspired to write "Horton Hears a Who" after visiting Japan, but he learned a life lesson there that generalizes to all experiences. There is no reason to think that in the story, Horton is the United States. Minear seems to have trouble with the idea that Seuss learned general lessons and wrote stories to illustrate them.

*2.6 Stars*

n  Scorecard:n (Out of 10)
* Quality of Writing - 5
* Pace - 5
* Plot development - 4
* Characters - 8
* Enjoyability - 6
* Insightfulness - 3
* Ease of Reading - 2
* Photos/Illustrations - 10
Final Score: 43/80 = 54%

n  *The Gush*n

I wanted to like this book. I mean, I REALLY wanted to like this book. Dr. Seuss, one of my favorite writers/illustrators of all times, and WWII – what wasn’t there not to love?

Read on.

The illustrations themselves are amazing. Surreal but amazing. You will instantly recognize them if you’ve read even one Dr. Seuss book, and many images conjure up familiar stories like Horton, Yertle, and more. And as political/editorial cartoons, they are quite good. I can’t help but compare them to many today that are simple drawings…and you often don’t have a clue what their creator is trying to say. Dr. Seuss’ are quite complex drawings with a simple message that all but hits you over the head. You often barely need the handful of words that accompany the picture, even today with our limited understanding of the world they were created in. They are not always politically correct by today’s standard but surprisingly rarely; most often this corresponds to his portrayal of the Japanese. Compared to some of his contemporaries however, they are not as harsh as they could be. Much I think can be traced to the fact that he had traveled in Europe but like many other Americans of the time, he’d had little contact with the Japanese people. But that is just what I think from reading between the lines of this book.

While some might find aspects of Dr. Seuss the political cartoonist at odds with how they saw him as a children’s illustrator, I found him interesting and far less surprising then many other childhood ‘heroes’ I’ve learned about as I’ve grown older.

The illustrations also give the reader an insight into America at the beginning of the war that no textbook can match and few other works can come close to replicating. Several discuss the hardships faced on the home front while others deal with people on both sides of the issue most people today don’t really know about. One of the best things the author does is make sure the dates corresponding to the cartoons are there as well as making sure the reader understands why Dr. Seuss is highlighting these particular people.

n  *The Rant*n

Like I said, I wanted to like this book; I had even planned on buying this book before reading it (which happens rarely). However, I had certain expectations concerning the book based on what I had read about it and simply its subject. I came away feeling as if the book lived up to none of these expectations, ones I should point out that were very basic and not extraordinary.

My first expectation was that this book would have some interpretation of the cartoons. Political cartoons, particularly historical ones beg for this and while I was hoping the author would not go into great detail (I’m not well read on artistic interpretation and was afraid it would be over my head) there turned out to be virtually none at all. This can easily be explained by the fact that the author is a historian. He did draw attention to elements that any reader, even children, would notice such as an elephant in a tree (Horton Hatches an Egg) and turtles standing on each other’s backs making a V (Yertle the Turtle), etc. Any reader of Seuss would notice this. His comments on the Axis leaders were better, but still very self-evident.

My second expectation was that the text would work to establish the works within two contexts: Seuss’ life and America/World during World War II. The author did an adequate job of giving a brief Seuss bio as well as tying some of it to his work. He also made sure the reader understood the unique paper his cartoons appeared in. It was…adequate but basically a recitation of facts he discovered and got from other places. The rest of the book was connecting the individual cartoons to what was going on at the time and what they were specifically addressing while also breaking the cartoons into sections based on who is talked about, when they were done, and what they addressed. Again this was done…adequately but basically boiled down to another recitation of facts. This was necessary but could have been handled about a dozen ways better than what it ended up being. I was also surprised by how little interpretation and distillation there was in his writing. That author is a professor of history at a prestigious university and he doesn’t do one of the basics of historical writing? Even when he does, it’s uneven and he doesn’t carry it through beyond a point or two. I simply expect more from historical work.

My third expectation was that this book would be the ultimate printed collection of a section of Dr. Seuss’ work that few knew about and no one had previous done any study on. Instead, there were enumerable instances where the author talked about cartoons that…were…not…included.

Why?

Why were they not included, especially if you were going to talk about them? It makes no sense. The presentation of the ones chosen was good in that each cartoon got a full page, enabling the reader to truly appreciate the work that went into each work of art. However, the discussions of the cartoons were placed in text at the beginning of each chapter with the cartoons packaged together after the text. In some ways, this works but it made it impossible to read while looking at the cartoon he was discussing. I tried working through this book two ways: the first by reading the text including the next cartoon and then flipping forward to study the image with the author’s discussion in mind and the second by looking at a four + images and then reading the text including all of those in one swoop. The first way worked better and lead to better understanding but took easily twice as long if not more. The second was faster, but I didn’t feel I gained as much from this method. The setup was cumbersome. I’m not completely sure how they could have changed it except perhaps to have the cartoons on one page with the corresponding text on the facing one while keeping the sections in order to keep the continuity. It would still be cumbersome but in a different way.

So, in short, all my expectations were met by mediocrity. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t in anyway exceptional which is the saddest part of the entire enterprise for me. Dr. Seuss, to me, stands for exceptional illustrations and quality storytelling; creating a book about him that reaching at best for mediocrity is nearly a slap in the face. The only thing that saves this is the how well the illustrations are rendered.

n  *Conclusion*n

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I don’t feel this book lives up to what one would and should expect from the work. Having a physical copy of most of Dr. Seuss’ editorial cartoons is nice but I feel the rest of the book does not make this book worth it. If all you expect is mediocrity, then perhaps this book is for you but I expect a bit more, especially with Dr. Seuss’ name connected to it. Still, if you are a diehard Seuss fan, this is an interesting read through if only to see how he envisioned Hitler and to learn that Seuss is supposed to rhyme with Royce! Huh, learn something new every day.

P.S. If you are interested in looking at the cartoons, there seems to be a website here. Caution: these are not for children. Some of them are a bit disturbing. Nothing horrible, just not Cat in the Hat level.

Wow. I found this book to be powerful and for such a wide audience - fans of Dr. Seuss or political cartoons as well as those fascinated by World War II. This is likely a great book for teachers who cover World War II to share with students for the history of studying a plethora of political cartoons - a skill students often could use extra help with.

The author does a very fine job of describing basic events of the war as they related to Dr. Seuss’s cartoons and also filling in the gaps for other events to ultimately give a decent overview of the war & provide a solid understanding of his cartoons. Readers need not be able to analyze political cartoons on their own to enjoy this book, as Richard H. Minear, the author, carefully explains nuances of every cartoon included within the pages of the book and some that are not. Already a history love, I have a new appreciation for political cartoons and their role in times of war. Dr. Seuss was a clever cartoonist, and it’s a shame more people don’t know him for that. Fans of his children’s books can easily identify his trademark art in the cartoons, though.

My only complaint is not about the book itself but the format. I read the kindle edition on my fire, which gave excellent pictures for all the cartoons with a great ability to zoom into them. However, flipping through the book while reading to view the cartoons as Minear discusses each one is troublesome at best. I resorted to studying the cartoons as I concluded reading each section of the book. I suggest anyone who is super interested in the contents for whichever reason to just splurge and buy a physical copy for ease of studying the cartoons at the appropriate times of reading. The kindle copy was good for pure enjoyment.

An artful history of the wartime propaganda machine and the role played by one of the world's most recognizable names in children's lit: Dr. Seuss. The images on these pages are not that far off from what we still do today in our INFOWAR efforts; we dehumanize our enemies, extoll the virtues of opposing them, and pay no mind to the many ways in which we are similar.

I found this book in the library, and was instantly drawn in by it. Dr. Seuss as polemicist! It contains a large number of the one-panel editorial cartoons created by Geisel from 1941-1943 for the publication PM, which was a liberal, pro-labor, pro-FDR (and ultimately pro-war and anti-fascist) news magazine being published in New York City at the time.

Seuss skewers Mussolini as weak and ineffective, Hitler as strangely pompous and above-it-all, the French collaborator Laval as beneath contempt. He has it out for isolationists, especially Lindbergh, and people who aren't cooperating with air raid, scrap metal, and other war efforts. He blasts anti-Semites and other racists, yet surprisingly (though this seems to have been very very common in the US in the fifties) has a major blind spot for the Japanese. His Japanese characters are interchangeable, silly, malicious, scheming, and bloodthirsty. It was interesting to find one cartoon which lampooned the notion of the brotherhood of men with a murderous "Japan". This one was so far out it drew the ire of PM's readers. One imagines that the later author of "The Sneetches" eventually widened his circle of humanity to include even "the Japs".

Minear does a workman-like job of describing the historical context of the characters in the cartoons and the times, providing a small description of each. One frustration is that although the collection has been edited (I get the feeling about half of the cartoons made it in), Minear describes many of the cartoons not included. This only makes you want to see those, as well.

A final note: some of the cartoons are wildly inventive, incredibly detailed masterpieces, brimming with creativity and pushing the editorial cartoon as an artform. The book is worth reading for these alone.