How Dr Seuss took on American isolationism

A cartoon is doing the rounds online, critiquing American isolationism and the reluctance to engage with the war in Europe. It lampoons the head-in-the-sand myopia of the America First movement – and feels highly relevant today. But this cartoon isn’t new; it is from 1941. And its targets aren’t Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, but Charles Lindbergh and Joseph Kennedy. The cartoon, while acerbic, has a cosy, familiar quality reminiscent of children’s books – for good reason. It was drawn by Dr Seuss.

He was particularly critical of Lindbergh – an aviator hero, appeaser and possible Nazi sympathiser

Long before the Cat donned his Hat and the Grinch stole Christmas, Dr Seuss – real name Theodor Seuss Geisel – was a political cartoonist. He produced some 400 drawings for the liberal New York paper PM and was a vociferous critic of America’s reluctance to engage with the fascist menace in Europe. He was particularly critical of Lindbergh – an aviator hero, appeaser and possible Nazi sympathiser – whom he often depicted as an ostrich called ‘Lindy’.

Geisel was born in 1904 of immigrant descent, and all four of his grandparents were German. He consequently took a keen interest in events in Europe. He attended New Hampshire’s elite Dartmouth College and Lincoln College Oxford, where he intended to become a doctor of philosophy in English literature. Instead, he became Dr Seuss. His future wife persuaded him to forgo a teaching career to concentrate on drawing, and so Geisel headed into the world of animation and advertising, plugging everything from bug sprays to Ford motors.