The World War: 1939-1945: The Cartoonist's VIsion, edited by Roy Douglas

The World War: 1939-1945: The Cartoonist's Vision, written and cartoons edited by Roy Douglas
Routledge, 1990
300 pages, no index. Lots of editorial cartoons.
Library: 940.53 DOU

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The road to war
2. The arrival of war
3. Scandinavia and the Baltic
4. The Battle of France
5. Aftermath
6. Autumn 1940
7. The Neutrals
8. The Soviet Union, 1939-41
9. Atlantic Partnership, 1939-41
10. Japan, 1939-41
11. The Far East, 1941-2
12. The GEram war in 1942
13. War and th echanging world
14. North Africa and France, 1942-3
15. The war in 1943
16. Inter-allied problems, 1943
17. Western Europe, 1944
18. Eastern Europe, 1944
19. Yalta
20. The end of the war in Europe
21. Inter-allied relations 1945
22. British wartime politics
23. The end of the Far Eastern war
24. The remaining problems

Description:
In a new approach to the history of the Second World War, Roy Douglas portrays the events through cartoons, explaining what message they were meant to convey to the contemporary reader and revealing the radically different perceptions of different countries as to where the most crucial issues of the war lay.

Cartoons from various combatant nations are drawn together to show that, though the traditions and practice of cartooning differed, cartoons were seen everywhere as a more open, less constrained form of political expression. Nevertheless, cartoonists from all countries were at risk of falling foul of their governments. No cartoonist in Stalin's USSR would have dared deviate one hairsbreadth from what he knew, or belied, the official line to be. Even in Britain, cartoonists had to be circumspect; Churchill was at one time meditating a ban on the Daily Mirror, largely because of a cartton which offended him. And the essential ambiguity of American foreign policy is wonderfully reflected in the cartoons, both those by Americans and those reflecting foreign perceptions of US actions.

Roy Douglas discusses how the war looked from a wide variety of angles and how cartoonists understood the part which their own cartoons and those of others - allies, enemies and neutrals - were playing in the course of events.

There is an overall narrative detailing the main outlines of the war, and each image is located in the context of events. Douglas gives new insights into contemporary perspectives of the war, highlighting the importance of the cartoonists and the media. His book will appeal to a wide readership, from history scholars to students andd general readers.


0415030498

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