HISTORICAL CARTOONS
Interwar
Developments
Part 1
Permanent Prosperity
The USA had never
before known the
sustained prosperity
that it experienced
during the 1920s. A
booming economy gave
rise to the expectation
that the good times
would go on indefinitely.
That expectation is
conveyed in this cartoon
by the American
cartoonist, published in
1929 on the eve of the
Great Depression.
Finis
While he was running for
the office of President in
1928, President Hoover
had promised the American
people ‘a chicken in every
pot’ and ‘a car in every
garage.’ When the Great
Depression set in the 1930
Hoover declared that
‘prosperity is around the
corner’. Frankin Roosevelt,
a Democrat, rejected
Hoover and the policies of
the Republican Party,
sometimes referred to as
the Grand Old Party.
This cartoon was published in 1933, captures the popular perception of
Hoover and the Republican policies as being outmoded and irrelevant.
Power Struggle
This cartoon is a
German comment
on the struggle for
power after Lenin’s
death. The tall
figure is Trotsky who
is being held back
from taking power
by Stalin, Kamenev
and Zinoview.
The Victim
This cartoon was drawn by the
British cartoonist and is a
comment on the first Five Year
Plan. It was published in Punch
on 1933, the year the first plan
ended and the second Plan
began. The caption refers to
the accusations of sabotage
and machine wrecking which
were made against workers
who failed to achieve the levels
of production set in the plan, or
whose machinery broke down
because of the pressure to
produce more and more goods.
So called saboteurs and
wreckers were often shot.
The Goose-Step
The stiff legged marching
style used by the German
army was known as the
goose-step. Thuis the British
cartoonist chose to comment
ton German actions in 1936
by adopting the nursery
rhyme
‘Goosey
Goosey
Gander.’ This cartoon was
published in Punch in 1936.
This cartoon was
published in Punch in
1935, describing
Mussolini’s neglect of
the League of Nations.
“The League? Pah!
The League is
contemptible! The
League can do
nothing! “
Red Carpet
Japanese World
Power
This cartoon is David Low’s view of Japanese foreign policy in Asia in
the late 1930s.
The Parting
Guest
This cartoon was
published in Punch on 22
December 1937. An
elegant and faintly cynical
League of Nations bids a
well-bred goodbye to an
ill-mannered guest. A
masked Mussolini,
pockets bulging with
pilfered silverware, slinks
down the steps of the
League’s headquarters in
Geneva, carrying his loot.
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Parts 2 and 3 of this presentation will be continued on the
coming IT resources CD or our web site.
Teaching resources, such as AL teaching notes,
worksheets, sample data-based questions and web
resources, are available on our web site.
Prepared by
Hong Kong Association of History Educators
http://home.hkcampus.net/~hkahe
March 2001