Non­fic­tion

The Implaca­ble Urge to Defame: Car­toon Jews in the Amer­i­can Press, 1877 – 1935

  • From the Publisher
June 4, 2017

From the 1870s to the 1930s, Amer­i­can car­toon­ists devot­ed much of their ink to out­landish car­i­ca­tures of immi­grants and minor­i­ty groups, mak­ing explic­it the deroga­to­ry stereo­types that cir­cu­lat­ed at the time. Mem­bers of eth­nic groups were depict­ed as fools, con­nivers, thieves, and indi­vid­u­als hard­ly fit for Amer­i­can cit­i­zen­ship, but Jews were espe­cial­ly sin­gled out with visu­al and ver­bal abuse. In The Implaca­ble Urge to Defame, Baigell exam­ines more than six­ty pub­lished car­toons from humor mag­a­zines such as Judge, Puck, and Life and con­sid­ers the cli­mate of opin­ion that allowed such car­toons to be pub­lished. In doing so, he traces their impact on the emer­gence of anti-Semi­tism in the Amer­i­can Scene move­ment in the 1920s and 1930s.

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