Political cartoons’ influence on people during World War 1 Brieanna Wilson HIST 122: US History 1865-Present May 4, 2023 Through World War One and the years around it, political cartoons had a big effect on war politics, presidential elections, and the people involved in the war. Political cartoons during this time attacked Germans and supported American war efforts. Cartoons have been seen as simple and funny but over the years have metastasized to be political and even persuasive in foundation. These cartoons take a jab at political role models and try to deteriorate their influence on American politics and economics. American political cartoons go way back into the 1750s, when they first were introduced to America. They …show more content…
Political cartoons are important historical resources for students in classrooms. They portray many different topics and opinions, not just the opinions and topics white men want us to learn about. These cartoons had a major influence on the group of people who could understand the message that was being shared. Before cartoons you had to be able to read in order to understand, but with cartoons you only have to understand the picture being displayed. “As far back as 1871, “Boss” Tweed of the New York City Democratic machine is reported to have said, after seeing Thomas Nast’s stinging “Who Steal the People’s Money?” in Harper’s Weekly, “I don’t care so much what the papers say about me-my constituents can’t read; but damn it, they can see pictures!” Many African Americans during this time period could not read unless they taught themselves or were freed slaves who went to school. Cartoons were so effective mainly because you weren't required to be able to read in order to understand them, that's one reason why these cartoons had such a wide variety of audiences. The audience of political cartoons grew with each cartoon that was drawn. The skimmers were so committed to their cartoonist that some could tell the difference between their cartoonist and others. Some of the most important cartoonists include, “James Gillray, George Cruikshank, Thomas Rowlandson, Honoré Daumier, and Nast.” You will see their name in a lot of historically important cartoons as they showed what the public was thinking about the government and their
The political cartoon of Boss Tweed by Thomas Nast is the one I picked. The cartoon, titled "Boss Tweed Caricature," was created largely to draw attention to Boss Tweed's unlawful meddling in the political system. With the authority he was given, Boss Tweed broke several rules, stole a lot of money from the public, gave people jobs they didn't deserve, and hired people with the intention of gaining him more support. Boss Tweed was the subject of several cartoons by Thomas Nast, but this one in particular was meant to draw attention to how much control he had over the political system and how he was abusing it to manipulate the elections. I think Thomas Nast had a valid point when he said that he was acting selfishly and not for the proper reasons
His point of view is clearly shown using irony, hyperbole and visual metaphor. The cartoon can be interpreted as different things depend on the readers, values and beliefs.
This political cartoon was indirectly terrorizing the opposing nations alongside boosting people's morals to join the military. Encouraging people to join the military gave countries a better chance at winning.
The use of visual cues is an effective way to communicate a particular message to a desired audience. Both text and picture in a political cartoon, or a real life image, can be used to present commentary on a particular political situation. For instance, a political cartoon illustrates Ted Cruz on an island alone with a boat driving away with the wording “GOP Support,” to display the lack of support he gets from fellow Republicans. Furthermore, the article “Obnoxiousness is the New Charisma” written by Frank Bruni, presents an unflattering picture of Ted Cruz with his fist up and a blurred out mouth. Since both these images are anti-Cruz, they are targeted towards an audience who feels similarly towards him, whether conservative or liberal.
The cartoon states that the events that happened in Kansas were forced. Pro-slavery settlers poured into Kansas to sway the votes in their favor, turning Kansas into a slave-state. The cartoon shows Democrats pushing slavery into the anti-slavery Kansas citizen. Behind them lays the violence that Bleeding Kansas brought. The Southern newspaper editorials treated John Brown’s raid as if he is trying to undo the natural fabrics of American society.
This symbolized a loss of freedom as well. In document #3 it was said to “Say whatever happened to freedom-from-fear?” and the cartoon shown from this document it had showed that people were being smeared with points from senator meaty. As for this did that to people who were in state
Traub uses several argumentative techniques in an attempt to strengthen his claim. Some of these techniques include the Aristotelian components of persuasive arguments. One critical point that is argued in this article is the importance of the newspaper comic strip. In the second paragraph, Traub mentions that comic strips hold a certain weight of social and cultural importance. He then qualifies his own argument by stating that even though the comic portion of the newspaper may not bear the same political value as the rest of the newspaper as a whole, it is certainly still significant.
For example, another of Benjamin Franklin’s cartoons arose when the American colonists were attempting to rid of the Stamp Act, imposed by Great Britain. According to the History Matters website, “[t]his 1767 engraving… warned of the consequences of alienating the colonies through enforcement of the Stamp Act” (History Matters). The image that Franklin creates attempts to awaken its viewers by depicting a very graphical image of a person with its limbs cut off, in order to provoke the people to realize that it was similar to what our colonies were going through. The acts that Britain were enforcing on America were unjust, and the press needed the citizens of the colonies to realize that as well, which is why they wrote and created images of whatever they could to get their
Consequently, I agree with your description totally. QUESTION 5: It was an African American murdered because the tombstone above his head had sketched: “killed negroe.” Both cartoons were sinister because both reflected the same physical outcome of African Americans being murdered. It does not matter if it was a hanging or being hit by a blunt object that was the result of a death of African Americans. The message of white supremacy and dominance was the true sinister act Nast captured in the cartoons.
Similarly, propaganda came in many forms, as the TV was starting to make itself known in the 1930s. These numerous forms include political cartoons, posters, novels, comic books, movies, and cartoons. Furthermore, propaganda could be very specific
With the help of propaganda posters, artists were able to motivate Americans, young and old, to contribute to the role of the United States in the war. Posters often contained children smiling and holding a war bond, with certain words like, “Buy a War Bond today”, or, “Support our troops by buying a War Bond”. However, they didn’t have to involve children. One famous example is “Uncle Sam”, used a propaganda poster to help persuade people to sign up for the draft, was originally published as the cover for the July 6, 1916, issue of Leslie's Weekly this portrait of "Uncle Sam" went on to become--according to its creator, James Montgomery Flagg--"the most famous poster in the world."
The Republican party was trying to forgive and forget the Democratic party after the U.S. Civil War, which was depicted through the lady in the cartoon. While the Democratic party was trying to bring back the old constitution, slavery, and racism to the south and was depicted through the wolves in the cartoon. When published in the magazine Harper’s Weekly, the readers were given the news of the country in an accurate and realistic way, just like in the modern-day news, but through art in 1865. This shows that while many things of historical America were different than modern day America, there are many similar things, including the policies, elected officials, voting patterns, and the way the news is communicated and shown to the citizens of the country even as they progress and try to make the future a better place to live
During the 1860’s, there was tremendous tension between immigrants and Americans in the United States. To portray this “tension”, a political cartoon that was drawn by an unknown cartoonist to depict that America’s culture was in danger. This political cartoon is called “The Great Fear of the Period That Uncle Sam May be Swallowed by Foreigners: The Problem Solved” and was published in San Francisco, California by White & Bauer. The central goal for publishing this cartoon was to bring fear among the Americans, and therefore blame the immigrants.
Even though he had German ancestry, he favored the Allies and criticized fascists such as Hitler. He persuaded people to think different things about war in his cartoons he drew. After writing hundreds of political cartoons, he wrote many stories that impacted children because they became their bedtime stories and were read in classrooms. They grabbed the kid’s attention with the catchy rhymes and funny made up words he used. This made kids want to learn how to read and begin learning to do so.
An independent government agency known as The Committee on Public Information was formed as a way to influence the public’s opinion which they did by using propaganda. There are many different forms of propaganda and many of them were used in WWI which author Joseph Joe Kaminski further discusses in “World War I and Propaganda Poster Art: Comparing The United States and German Class”. The answer to getting the public’s attention was by using different tactics to intrigue citizens; “The use of propaganda art was essential in galvanizing opinions and reshaping ideas during WWI” (Kaminksi, 2).