DOI: 10.1093/alh/ajad148 ISSN:

Comics and American Cultural Policy

Bart Beaty
  • Literature and Literary Theory
  • History
  • Cultural Studies
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Abstract

This review considers the contributions of two 2021 monographs—Christopher J. Gilbert’s Caricature and National Character: The United States at War and Paul Hirsch’s Pulp Empire: A Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism—each of which examines the role of cartooning in shaping attitudes towards warfare, imperialism, and nationalism in the US in the twentieth century.The highly repetitive and remarkably codified nature of the comic-book story is . . . the thing that made it attractive for propagandistic purposes.

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