A lavishly illustrated; witty; and original look at the awesome power of the political cartoon throughout history to enrage; provoke; and amuse. As a former editor of The New York Times Magazine and the longtime editor of The Nation; Victor S. Navasky knows just how transformativemdash;and incendiarymdash;cartoons can be. Here Navasky guides readers through some of the greatest cartoons ever created; including those by George Grosz; David Levine; Herblock; Honoreacute; Daumier; and Ralph Steadman. He recounts how cartoonists and caricaturists have been censored; threatened; incarcerated; and even murdered for their art; and asks what makes this art form; too often dismissed as trivial; so uniquely poised to affect our minds and our hearts.Drawing on his own encounters with would-be censors; interviews with cartoonists; and historical archives from cartoon museums across the globe; Navasky examines the political cartoon as both art and polemic over the centuries. We see afresh images most celebrated for their artistic merit (Picassos Guernica; Goyas "Duendecitos"); images that provoked outrage (the 2008 Barry Blitt New Yorker cover; which depicted the Obamas as a Muslim and a Black Power militant fist-bumping in the Oval Office); and those that have dictated public discourse (Herblockrsquo;s defining portraits of McCarthyism; the Nazi periodical Der Stuuml;rmerrsquo;s anti-Semitic caricatures). Navasky ties together these and other superlative genre examples to reveal how political cartoons have been not only capturing the zeitgeist throughout history but shaping it as wellmdash;and how the most powerful cartoons retain the ability to shock; gall; and inspire long after their creation.Here Victor S. Navasky brilliantly illuminates the true power of one of our most enduringly vital forms of artistic expression.
2012-10-11 2012-10-11File Name: B009P59F8Y
Review
