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creolelitbelle's review
5.0
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.
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.
moreilly1917's review
4.0
This kind of read like a PhD thesis, and I didn’t agree with all the analysis… but I’m obviously not an expert on historical cartoons and the general subject matter was so interesting, it ended up being a fun read. Steamy scale 0 of 5 (Kindle)
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