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The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power Hardcover – April 9, 2013

by Victor S. Navasky (Author)

22 customer reviews

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A lavishly illustrated, witty, and original look at the awesome power of the political cartoon throughout history to enrage, provoke, and amuse.

As a former editor of The New York Times Magazine and the longtime editor of The Nation, Victor S. Navasky knows just how transformative—and incendiary—cartoons can be. Here Navasky guides readers through some of the greatest cartoons ever created, including those by George Grosz, David Levine, Herblock, Honoré Daumier, and Ralph Steadman. He recounts how cartoonists and caricaturists have been censored, threatened, incarcerated, and even murdered for their art, and asks what makes this art form, too often dismissed as trivial, so uniquely poised to affect our minds and our hearts.

Drawing on his own encounters with would-be censors, interviews with cartoonists, and historical archives from cartoon museums across the globe, Navasky examines the political cartoon as both art and polemic over the centuries. We see afresh images most celebrated for their artistic merit (Picasso's Guernica, Goya's "Duendecitos"), images that provoked outrage (the 2008 Barry Blitt New Yorker cover, which depicted the Obamas as a Muslim and a Black Power militant fist-bumping in the Oval Office), and those that have dictated public discourse (Herblock’s defining portraits of McCarthyism, the Nazi periodical Der Stürmer’s anti-Semitic caricatures). Navasky ties together these and other superlative genre examples to reveal how political cartoons have been not only capturing the zeitgeist throughout history but shaping it as well—and how the most powerful cartoons retain the ability to shock, gall, and inspire long after their creation.

Here Victor S. Navasky brilliantly illuminates the true power of one of our most enduringly vital forms of artistic expression.

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The highly acclaimed, longtime editor and publisher of the Nation and the author of the National Book Award–winning Naming Names (1980) here takes on a compelling subject, one nearly ideal for him and one that will appeal to his many adherents and deservedly earn him new readers. Although a bit repetitive, this heavily illustrated, entertainingly written look at poltical cartoons is both personal—Navasky’s experience with controversial drawing as well as writing is considerable—and thoroughly researched. It is also deeply insightful, particularly in the discussion of caricature, a unique form of satire. Though the book’s main focus is on Americans (Herblock, Edward Sorel, David Levine), Navasky also discusses well- and lesser-known twentieth-century cartoonists from around the world, and his inclusion of a time line of their persecution (and prosecution) is eye-opening and lends closure to his persuasively made conclusions. --Mark Levine

From Bookforum

In his survey of the genre, Navasky wants to know why cartoons are so effective at conveying political messages—an understandable quandary for a self-proclaimed "word person." Navasky is admittedly working outside of his element, but he attempts to tackle the problem in the style of his word-focused tribe. This early dissection of the subject can be pretty abstract, but it does yield one concrete and intriguing interpretation of the power of the political cartoon: the idea that caricatures overload our facial-recognition circuitry and thus seem more face-like than actual faces. —Josh Fruhlinger

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Product details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Knopf; F First Edition edition (April 9, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307957209
ISBN-13: 978-0307957207
Product Dimensions: 7 x 1 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 22 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #883,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4585 in Books > Arts & Photography > History & Criticism > Criticism
- #6127 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science > History & Theory

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Not What The Topic Deserves

July 25, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Disappointing history of political cartooning and caricature over the last several hundred years. The author does make good choices of the right cartoonists to feature in such a book, and the sections on individual cartoonists are interesting. The first part of the book, however, which purports to treat cartooning in general, is too full of lit-crit babble to be useful, or interesting. Also, the reader should be prepared to deal with a highly personal viewpoint -- the author is a former editor of "The Nation", and has many anecdotes to share. An interesting book, but not the serious study I was looking for.

4 people found this helpful

Comment

Princess Raw Vegan Spiritual

Political Cartoonists put their life on the life.

April 27, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I actually cut these cartoons out and put them around my house. I loved reading this book first. Its very funny. I love political cartoonists, the most dangerous of all jobs. People on death row now. Today for cartoons, what about Charlie Hebdo, etc..and political propaganda of the World wars...and the presidents who got elected because and the scourge of Napoleon, its all in here.

Comment

June 8, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Poor treatment of an obscure subject.

Comment

The Art of the Art of Controversy

November 2, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Like all Navasky's books, The Art of Controversy is told in a charming, witty voice that makes you feel you're sitting across the table in a Flatiron district bistro listening to this wonderful author and journalist tell stories. From this word master I learned a lot about how wordless art gets under the skin; a most readable and informative historical study of caricatures and cartoons!

One person found this helpful

Comment

AToo much verbbal history - not enough examples wih brief comment.

August 18, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I find myself looking at cartoons with new appreciation of the art and content.I didn't expect the book to be a verbalhistory and a commentary on the role of newspapers. Disappointed that there weren't more examples of the controversial artists.

2 people found this helpful

Comment

Jim Duggins, Ph.D.

Life As A Rorschach Test

June 2, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Editor-critic-professor-writer Victor Navasky gives us a whirlwind tour of the art and socio-politics of cartoon and caricature in his book "The Art of Controversy: Political Cartoons and Their Enduring Power." In the beginning section of the book, author Navasky presents theoretical bases for the nature of cartoon and caricature, the differences of verbal and visual arts in their appeal as well as impact. Here he defines major elements of cartoon asnd caricature, i.e., content, image, and stimulus. In this introduction, too, he sketches the history of various techniques for creating messages for social but primarily political causes.

Remarkable to me was also the "accessibility" of his prose. It is smooth, well-stated with simple examples easily comprehended by the lay reader who is neither artist nor socio-psychological scholar. I can only speculate that the author's decades of work as an editor and writer in fields where cartoon/caricature were primary carriers of these messages made the knowledge at his fingertips readily available to lead us as students and/or interested readers into the concepts with a facility that was a joy to read. It was a can't-put-it-down read from cover to cover.

Having established those conceptual bases, then, Navasky proceeds to present a "gallery" of prominent artists of this work and an historical overview of four hundred years of the genre throughout the world. In this work he looks closely at several dozen individuals, and gives them more definition re: their historical times and peers. One cannot be more than awed by the power of this author who owns this field so completely. I was touched by the number of works that had been stored away in my own memory and can only be grateful for author Navasky's giving me a larger framework to establish a context for the work and for me. "The Art of Controversy" is a must read book for news consumers and thoughtful citizens anywhere in the world.

One person found this helpful

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Herbert Bielawa

Cartoons trump prose

August 18, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book contained a lot of information that was new to me. It was gripping in its graphic power to persuade.

One person found this helpful

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October 6, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

scholarly and fascinating

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