Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 1991

Rating:
Summary: Editorial cartoons on the eve of the first Persian Gulf War
Review: Well, the cover of the "Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 1991" is certainly timely. It has Saddam Hussein declaring than his government is digging it to stay and then shows him standing in the grave his men are digging for their nation. This volume offers more than 330 editorial cartoons from the year 1990, which included not only the prelude to the (first) Gulf War but also the political upheavals in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, and the continuing efforts to control the growing budget deficit in the United States that would end up being pivotal in the next Presidential election.

The work of over 170 editorial cartoonists in the United States and Canada are found in this volume edited by Charles Brooks. The continuing circus in Washington, D.C. is a constant source of inspiration, whether you are talking the Bush Administration or the Congress. But the volume begins with the Persian Gulf Conflict, taking jabs at both the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and President Bush's attempt to do something about it. My favorite cartoon is from Jim Borgman of the Cincinnati Enquirer, which shows Saddam with a noose around his neck from a newly planted young tree labeled "Blockade" while Bush, all dressed up in military garb, says, "Now we wait..." It is hard not to look at these cartoons and now be overwhelmed by the irony that a dozen years later history is repeating itself.

Actually, there are more cartoons devoted to the efforts at political reform in the Soviet Union during 1990 as the country's economic deterioration threatened to undermine the "perestroika" of Mikhail Gorbachev. Meanwhile, Boris Yeltsin was elected head of the Russian Republic. Perhaps the greatest irony of looking back at these editorial cartoons is that Saddam Hussein is still in power (as I write this) and Mikhail Gorbachev is a historical footnote.

Other important topics from that year were the appointment of David Souter as Bush's "stealth nominee" to the Supreme Court, the trial of Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry on drug possession, the U.S. Census, the National Endowment of the Arts controversies, Pete Rose being convinced by filing false income tax records, and the deaths of Jim Henson and Ryan White. I always enjoy these works down memory lane because I find editorial cartoons do a better job of crystalizing the issues that defined the time than photographs or articles.

Rating:
Summary: Editorial cartoons on the eve of the first Persian Gulf War
Review: Well, the cover of the "Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 1991" is certainly timely. It has Saddam Hussein declaring than his government is digging it to stay and then shows him standing in the grave his men are digging for their nation. This volume offers more than 330 editorial cartoons from the year 1990, which included not only the prelude to the (first) Gulf War but also the political upheavals in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, and the continuing efforts to control the growing budget deficit in the United States that would end up being pivotal in the next Presidential election.

The work of over 170 editorial cartoonists in the United States and Canada are found in this volume edited by Charles Brooks. The continuing circus in Washington, D.C. is a constant source of inspiration, whether you are talking the Bush Administration or the Congress. But the volume begins with the Persian Gulf Conflict, taking jabs at both the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and President Bush's attempt to do something about it. My favorite cartoon is from Jim Borgman of the Cincinnati Enquirer, which shows Saddam with a noose around his neck from a newly planted young tree labeled "Blockade" while Bush, all dressed up in military garb, says, "Now we wait..." It is hard not to look at these cartoons and now be overwhelmed by the irony that a dozen years later history is repeating itself.

Actually, there are more cartoons devoted to the efforts at political reform in the Soviet Union during 1990 as the country's economic deterioration threatened to undermine the "perestroika" of Mikhail Gorbachev. Meanwhile, Boris Yeltsin was elected head of the Russian Republic. Perhaps the greatest irony of looking back at these editorial cartoons is that Saddam Hussein is still in power (as I write this) and Mikhail Gorbachev is a historical footnote.

Other important topics from that year were the appointment of David Souter as Bush's "stealth nominee" to the Supreme Court, the trial of Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry on drug possession, the U.S. Census, the National Endowment of the Arts controversies, Pete Rose being convinced by filing false income tax records, and the deaths of Jim Henson and Ryan White. I always enjoy these works down memory lane because I find editorial cartoons do a better job of crystalizing the issues that defined the time than photographs or articles.