Question

How do the political cartoons interpret America's role in the world? Provide examples.

Answer 1

Modern American political cartoons have been around since the nineteenth century. The increase in newspaper and magazine circulation in the 1800's provided a rich environment for the rise and use of political cartoons. Thomas Nast and Joseph Keppler penned many popular cartoons advocating social reform. People with minimal reading abilities could understand and relate to a format that communicated powerful ideas in a humorous, enlightened manner. Symbols, caricature, drawings, and exaggerations drawn by the cartoonist, point out the themes and problems of that historical era. Political cartoons play an important part in telling the history of a era.

Political cartoons serve to make people think about political and government issues by:

• providing readers with additional viewpoints="left">
• assuming the reader has enough background knowledge about the issues to understand the message="left">
• emphasizing one side of an issue or concern="left">
• utilizing humor="left">
• relying on drawings to make a point="left">

Some of the benefits of using political cartoons in the classroom are that they can:="left">

1. promote interest in political issues="left">
2. help develop students' analytical thinking skills="left">
3. encourage creativity="left">
4. help prepare students for questions on the Social Studies Assessments and Regents Exams="left">

Answer 2

Political cartoons are vivid primary sources that offer intriguing and entertaining insights into the public mood, the underlying cultural assumptions of an age, and attitudes toward key events or trends of the times. Since the 18th century, political cartoons have offered a highly useful window into the past. Just about every school history textbook now has its quota of political cartoons.

The stark, simple imagery of many cartoons can be highly deceptive. The best cartoons express real conceptual complexity in a single drawing and a few words. Cartoons from the 1700s and 1800s often employ archaic language, elaborate dialogue, and obscure visual references. It takes a good deal of knowledge of the precise historical context to grasp such cartoons. In short, political cartoons employ complex visual strategies to make a point quickly in a confined space. Teachers must help students master the language of cartoons if they are to benefit from these fascinating sources of insight into our past. The checklist is introduced through a series of classroom activities, and includes the following core concepts.

1. Symbol and Metaphor
2. Visual Distortion
3. Irony in Words and Images
4. Stereotype and Caricature
5. An Argument Not a Slogan
6. The Uses and Misuses of Political Cartoons