Comics and the World Wars A Cultural Record [Hardcover]

This transnational, interdisciplinary study argues for the use of comics as a primary source. In recuperating currently unknown or neglected strips the authors demonstrate that these examples, produced during the World Wars, act as an important cultural record, providing, amongst other information, a barometer for contemporary popular thinking.

Foreword; Kent Worcester
1. Introduction
2. A Proposed Theory and Method for the Incorporation of Comic Books as Primary Sources
3. Haselden as Pioneer: Reflecting or Constructing Home Front Opinion?
4. Proto Comics as Trench Record: Anti-Heroism, Disparagement Humour and Citizens' Journalism
5. The Rise and Fall of the World War One Gullible Worker as a Counter Culture
6. Adjusting to Total War: US Propaganda, Commerce and Audience
7. The Cultural Construction of Women: Pin-Ups, Proactive Women and Representation in Combat
8. Collective Culture as Dynamic Record: The Daily Worker 1940-43
9. Conclusion

Mining comics and cartoons as historical sources, this is an innovative, theoretically sophisticated study that crosses national and geographical boundaries. It makes a pioneering contribution to print, labour, gender and new cultural history, and the expanding field of humour studies, through a captivating series of case studies from both World Wars. - Bridget Griffen-Foley, Macquarie University, Australia

This study's focus on homefront and front-line comics from the two world wars brings welcome attention to texts generally ignored by scholars of history and comic art alike. Its argument for the significance of these largely overlooked comics as valuable source material opens the doors for further studies in these two fields and beyond. - Gene Kannenberg, Jr., Northwestern University, USA

This book establishes the significance of comics as a cultural recorlӜ