Book Review: Herblock’s Here and Now by Herbert Block
Shortly after reviewing Herblock at Large, I discovered this volume in the local used book store. It was published in 1955, and contains many of Mr. Block’s political cartoons from the early 1950s.
This included his Pulitzer-winning Joseph McCarthy work; Herblock appears to have actually coined the word “McCarthyism” for the witch hunt-like anti-Communist grandstanding so popular at the time. Mr. Block was pleased to be able to speak of the senator’s career in the past tense.
There is quite a bit more prose here than in the 1980s volume, helpful as I am less familiar with the period. Some prominent figures who feature in multiple cartoons are lost in the mists of history now, remembered perhaps only by their hometowns. President Eisenhower comes in for quite a bit of ribbing, but his treatment is gentle compared to that of Vice President Nixon, who is depicted as crawling out of a sewer.
The John Q. Public figure is seen quite frequently in these Fifties cartoons, a short, bespectacled fellow who is much put upon. He seems to have vanished by the 1980s, replaced by more varied civilians. Also a frequent visitor to the editorial page is Atomic War, a stylized atomic bomb wearing the helmet of Ares. He’s usually grinning menacingly, always ready to threaten.
Of resonance to today’s situation are the cartoons on the refugee crisis, thousands still displaced after World War Two, and the U.S. only allowing in a trickle–and under great suspicion at that.
The Soviet Union was considered a huge threat, and so was covered in detail as well–but Herblock reminds us that he has no inside information, so his depictions may be highly misleading as to what was actually going on inside the U.S.S.R. There’s also some commentary on the U.S. habit of supporting dictators and other unpleasant people in the name of containing Communism–this would come home to roost many times in the coming decades.
There’s surprisingly little on the civil rights struggle, only mentioned as part of a broader concern for American’s freedoms under the Constitution.
This one will probably be a bit harder to find, but highly recommended for fans of editorial cartooning, and those wanting a window into the early 1950s.
