The Art of Ill Will

View the Table of Contents View Sample ImagesWinner of the 2008 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show in the Trade Illustrated Book Design category.View author interview on Brian Lehrer Live"Not just a story of cartoons but a history of America through cartoons. Agreat gift book." -Brian Lehrer Live"An afternoon with The Art of Ill Will is time well spent, especially when followed by Funny Times, the cartoon monthly, and The Colbert Report. " --New York Times Book Review"The true stars of this book are the cartoons themselves. During a period when an entire government seems drawn by a sartirist, its instructive to look back at a history of politics reduced to two dimensions. " --Village Voice"Dewey makes a strong case that the political cartoons has played a uniquely formative role in American history."Cartoon News"[A] handsome and bracingly irreverent history of the form." -- New York Sun"This will make a nice coffee-table title for political junkies." --Publishers Weekly"This hybrid volume mixing history and sociology with political cartoons entertainingly brings the past to light. " --Library Journal"[Deweyrs"s] well-researched text offers insight into the historical setting that allowed the form the burgeon in the late nineteenth century, as well as interesting anecdotal information that illuminates shadowed elements of political history." --Popmatters.com"Several previous titles have tackled this important subject, but none equals the depth, breadth, and value of this new title." -The Bloomsbury Review"More than 200 pungent examples, from the days of Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin to the present, with a smooth text that explains the special punch of editorial cartoonists." -The Philadelphia Inquirer"A striking panorama of the unruly history of the American cartoonists trade. " --Austin American Statesman"Covers many, widely unknown political battles and scandals as well as cartoons that steered and swayed mass opinion with a one panel drawing."Alarm"Provides hundreds of examples of . . . puncturing the myths and mendacities in the political arena."--Copley News ServiceThe Art of Ill Will is a comprehensive history of American political cartooning, featuring over two hundred illustrations. From the colonial period to contemporary cartoonists like Pat Oliphant and Jimmy Margulies, Donald Dewey highlights these artists uncanny ability to encapsulate the essence of a situation and to steer the public mood with a single drawing and caption. Taking advantage of unlimited access to The Granger Collection, which holds thousands of the most significant works of Thomas Nast and the other early American cartoonists, The Art of Ill Will provides a survey of American history writ large, capturing the voice of the peoplehopeful, angry, patriotic, frustratedin times of peace and war, prosperity and depression.Dewey tracks the cartoonists role as a jester with a serious brief. Ulysses S. Grant credited cartoonists with helping him win his election and was not the only president to feel that way; political bosses and even state legislatures have sought to ban cartoons when they endangered entrenched interests; General George Patton once promised to throw belove