I had not read Dr. Seuss as a child, but his name was familiar as a sort of institution in the USA. However, I primarily thought of him as a writer of children's books, with his own quirky style of writing and illustration, until I came across this book. However, it stayed unread in my computer until I came across the following cartoon in social media:



It was terrifically relevant in today's situation, so I thought it was time I read the book.

Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) contributed editorial cartoons to the left-wing magazine PM from January 1941 to January 1943. His cartoons mostly criticised Hitler and Japan (Mussolini too, to a lesser extent), American isolationism in the face of Hitler's global aggression, racism and antisemitism.

Seuss's depiction of Hitler, and his enormous ego, is masterful. The Fuehrer is always shown with eyes closed in a superior fashion, and his nonexistent mouth indicates it to be tightly closed in a line, in supposed contempt of all humanity. His overweening ego is captured in a terrific illustration which also serves as the cover of this volume: Hitler the sculptor crafting the statue of Hitler the conqueror.



In contrast, Mussolini was diminished to the level of a street thug, and a battered one at that:



It is interesting to see that Stalin, who was initially looked on with suspicion and depicted as a dubious character, changes his looks once he joins the allied cause.





The first one is when the Soviet Union had a pact with both Germany and Japan: the second is after Hitler’s invasion of Russia. Stalin’s smile has become more open and less sinister!

However, he was racist to a very great extent as far as Japan was concerned: all Japanese are shown with the same face - slant eyes, round spectacles, scraggly moustache and idiotic leer. The most objectionable thing is, however, his presentation of Japanese Americans as some sort of fifth column, as shown in the cartoon below:



Even more objectionable was his depiction of all Japanese as murderers. The obnoxious cartoon below (which earned him a lot of flak) satirises John Haynes Holmes, a pacifist pastor, for saying that “the unhappy people of Japan are our brothers”:



When PM got a barrage of letters objecting to this travesty, Dr. Seuss went all out to defend his attitude instead of apologising. This is why this book came down to 3 stars for me: all his objection to racism and antisemitism, I feel, was just “political correctness” – as far as the Asian was concerned, his true nature shone forth. I wonder how he would have depicted the Arab had he been drawing today!

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One last point: I absolutely love Seuss’s animals, especially the cat, who slink about on the borders of his cartoons. The man could draw!

So I was horrified to learn of Dr. Seuss anti-Japanese attitudes, but interested to discover that he spoke up on behalf of Jews and Blacks when it was very unpopular to do so. People are complicated.

I never knew that Dr. Seuss started out as a political cartoonist, but I guess it really shouldn't have surprised me knowing the political twist on many of his picture books.... Great book, definitely worth the read.

This is a collection of some very important but not well known work by dr Seuss. These are WWII editorial cartoons by Seuss.

Dr. Seuss War Cartoons

A terrific opportunity to see the majority of Seuss’s editorial cartoons from World War II. A lot of the narrative is simply descriptors of the cartoons which is quite unnecessary however, overall, this is a worthwhile book.

I expected more social and historical context in the text; instead, it was just word descriptions of the cartoons. Still, it was nice to see how early Dr Seuss' signature style manifested itself.

Dr. Seuss Goes to War is a book that gives readers just a little bit more Intel into who the man behind The Cat In The Hat was. I view it as a type of biography. This book focuses mainly on Dr. Seuss political cartoons, those specifically made in world war two. The book despite its name isn't just cartoons. It gives the reader Intel into who Dr. Seuss was and the context in which he made the cartoons featured in the books. Get ready to laugh, cringe, say "Oh, that's bad and or horrible" and maybe even be a little bit offended. If I could I would give this a review of ten out of ten and would buy a copy or read again any time.

I have always been curious about Dr. Seuss’ political cartoons, and being in 1941 in my chronological-1001-movies-to-see-before-you-die project, this seemed like the perfect time to learn more! There were so many interesting cartoons here, and the author brings to it the historical context, good and bad interpretations from racism and propagandism to sympathy for humanity, but always with respect for Dr. Seuss and his talents. Very educational.

While the book has interesting information, I wish it had been organized differently.

Dr. Seuss gets his start with WWII propaganda. Chiefly of historical interest, whether looking at his early work -- you can see some traces of his future development -- or at the propaganda of the era.

Many of these cartoons are online. I've used several of them for instruction. It's so good to have them together here in chronological order with interpretations and relevant biographical and historical context. I also love the large, full-page size of each cartoon, ready for instructional or group use.

Picked up on a whim it ended up being very interesting.
A book about history.