Dr. Seuss vs. Hitler

The Holocaust Museum has a display of Dr. Seuss political cartoons which isn't very good--it doesn't have an originals, and doesn't even really show all that many of the cartoons he drew for P.M. (That said, a concurrent exhibition, A One-Man Army: The Art of Arthur Szyk is well-worth seeing. It has both originals and printed copies of the Szyk's work, so you can see the context for the pieces.)

But thanks to Radosh.net, I've found a place where online where you can see all of Seuss's political cartoons.



The anti-Lindbergh cartoons are vicious! We tend to forget this unsavory aspect of the aviation pioneer these days.



Heh--this reminds me of many kneejerk reactions to Obama.



More on Lindbergh.



After the Japanese attacked, Seuss's battles with the isolationists, America-firsters, and Lindbergh abruptly end. Those people are history and the job now is to keep America fighting.







Sadly, Seuss swallowed the lie that Japanese Americans were potential traitors--thinking that lead directly to concentration camps for a people based solely on their national ancestry.



Seuss was aware that the rest of the world was depending on the U.S.--it wasn't just about us.



Hey, this looks familiar!



About half of Seuss's cartoons were aimed at getting Americans at home to act in ways that supported Americans fighting abroad.


This is as stirring a defense of freedom of speech as any I've seen!





Seuss was also a bit of a scold.



But he was capable of celebrating when things went right (for a change).



He did several cartoons opposing Jim Crow hiring practices in war industries.



Happy Independence Day!