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Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:06 pm
by frogman042
Since I've already stepped into the off-topic political side of the bored today, I might as well put my whole self in.

This past weekend we were in Houston because my son had a soccer tournament there. Sunday afternoon was free so we went to a few of the museum's - the Children's Museum and the Health Museum - both are a lot of fun with kids but we closed the day with a visit to the Holocaust Museum - which had a special exhibit on Dr. Seuss and WWII.

I had seen a few of his WWII cartoons, but there were a number that I found really interesting. Several took on Charles Lindbergh very early on (prior to the US entering WWII) basically calling him a Nazi - really he didn't hold back as well in attacking anti-Semitism.

I also found interesting his take on chastising the US war suppliers for their racist and segregationists policies. Pretty heavy stuff and a strong stance at a time when such a stance was far from common. One was a cartoon of a piano saying that to fight the war we have to play all the keys together, black and white.

Way to go Mr. Geisel!

---Jay

Re: Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:58 pm
by lilyvonschtupp26
It's a shame, isn't it that Seuss' original works aren't more publicized? There's a great book about his political origins. Dr. Seuss Goes to War by historian Richard H. Minear. It's really great stuff.

Re: Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:14 pm
by franktangredi
frogman042 wrote:Since I've already stepped into the off-topic political side of the bored today, I might as well put my whole self in.

This past weekend we were in Houston because my son had a soccer tournament there. Sunday afternoon was free so we went to a few of the museum's - the Children's Museum and the Health Museum - both are a lot of fun with kids but we closed the day with a visit to the Holocaust Museum - which had a special exhibit on Dr. Seuss and WWII.

I had seen a few of his WWII cartoons, but there were a number that I found really interesting. Several took on Charles Lindbergh very early on (prior to the US entering WWII) basically calling him a Nazi - really he didn't hold back as well in attacking anti-Semitism.

I also found interesting his take on chastising the US war suppliers for their racist and segregationists policies. Pretty heavy stuff and a strong stance at a time when such a stance was far from common. One was a cartoon of a piano saying that to fight the war we have to play all the keys together, black and white.

Way to go Mr. Geisel!

---Jay
I discovered Dr. Suess's war cartoons a few years back, and put one of them in our middle school American history book. Very good stuff.

Re: Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:06 am
by andrewjackson
There are some pretty racist anti-Japanese ones in that WWII collection.

Those would be my only problem with Dr. Suess's work.

Example:

Image


This poster came out in February, 1942, just a week before FDR signed Executive Order 9066 which started the internment of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast.

Re: Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:26 am
by earendel
Speaking of the good doctor, check out Google's main page.

Re: Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:28 am
by minimetoo26
It's Dr. Seuss Day, and Australian Labor Day.

Re: Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:30 am
by littlebeast13
minimetoo26 wrote:It's Dr. Seuss Day, and Australian Labor Day.
It is also Casimir Pulaski Day!!!!!!

lb13

Re: Dr. Seuss has gone up in my book many notches

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:53 am
by andrewjackson
It's Texas Independence Day!

The Texas Declaration of Independence was adopted on March 2, 1836 in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas.