Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons in the United States

by Chris Lamb

Overview

In 2006, a cartoon in a Danish newspaper depicted the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb in his turban. The cartoon created an international incident, with offended Muslims attacking Danish embassies and threatening the life of the cartoonist. Editorial cartoons have been called the most extreme form of criticism society will allow, but not all cartoons are tolerated. Unrestricted by journalistic standards of objectivity, editorial cartoonists wield ire and irony to reveal the naked truths about presidents, celebrities, business leaders, and other public figures. Indeed, since the founding of the republic, cartoonists have made important contributions to and offered critical commentary on our society. Today, however, many syndicated cartoons are relatively generic and gag-related, reflecting a weakening of the newspaper industry's traditional watchdog function. Chris Lamb offers a richly illustrated and engaging history of a still vibrant medium that "forces us to take a look at ourselves for what we are and not what we want to be." The 150 drawings in Drawn to Extremes have left readers howling-sometimes in laughter, but often in protest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231130660
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	12/29/2004
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	0.81(w) x 9.00(h) x 6.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Chris Lamb is an associate professor of communication at the College of Charleston. His articles on editorial cartooning have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and trade journal Editor & Publisher.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. "You Should've Been in the World Trade Center!"
2. "President Bush Has Been Reading Doonesbury and Taking It Much Too Seriously"
3. "No Honest Man Need Fear Cartoons"
4. "McCarthyism"
5. "Second-Class Citizens of the Editorial Page"
6. "We Certainly Don't Want to Make People Uncomfortable Now, Do We?"
7. "That's Not a Definition of Libel; That's a Job Description"
8. "Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable"
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Roger A. Fischer

Judiciously balancing the mission of American editorial cartoonists with the restraints imposed by their editors and publishers, shrinking opportunities in print journalism, and public censorship in times of crisis, Professor Lamb has produced a volume rich in its insights and perspectives.

— Roger A. Fischer, author of Them Damned Pictures and professor emeritus of history, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Kathleen Hall Jamieson

The insightfully selected cartoons alone are worth the book.

Editorial Reviews

Lamb's book is a welcome look at a type of journalism that is given extraordinary latitude.

Globe and Mail - H.J. Kirchhoff

A book that will serve as a wake-up call to those who refuse to acknowledge the diminution of freedom of expression and democratic ideals in the U.S....Essential

Choice

[Lamb's] book is passionately argued...and the dozens of reproductions are fantastic.

Financial Times

If political cartoonists were to draw Chris Lamb, it might be as their knight, charging into battle.

Chronicle of Higher Education - Nina C. Ayoub

An important step forward for scholarship concerning editorial cartooning.

Political Communication - David W. Park

A thoughtfully composed and well-illustrated investigation of the role of those who serve as society's watchdogs.

ForeWord Magazine

Lamb's research, however, pays off in his enlightening history of cartooning, loaded with entertaining incidents beyond the well-known.

Bookforum - James Poniewozik

The insightfully selected cartoons alone are worth the book.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson

A thoughtfully composed and well-illustrated investigation of the role of those who serve as society's watchdogs.

ForeWordMagazine

Lamb's book is a welcome look at a type of journalism that is given extraordinary latitude.

— H.J. Kirchhoff

Globe & Mail

An important step forward for scholarship concerning editorial cartooning.

— David W. Park

Political Communication

If political cartoonists were to draw Chris Lamb, it might be as their knight, charging into battle.

— Nina C. Ayoub

Chronicle of Higher Education

Lamb's research, however, pays off in his enlightening history of cartooning, loaded with entertaining incidents beyond the well-known.

— James Poniewozik

Bookforum

Lamb's book is a welcome look at a type of journalism that is given extraordinary latitude.

— H.J. Kirchhoff

Globe and Mail

[Lamb's] book is passionately argued...and the dozens of reproductions are fantastic.

Financial Times