Ye Olde Europa Gin Mill: How War Looked in Isolationist Editorial Cartoons of 1941

Editorial cartoons in three major US isolationist newspapers used common themes to discuss the approach of war in 1941, but they differed in the details of where real threats could be found, who or what was hindering a strong national defense, and how to stay true to the wisdom of the Founders. Using Bormann’s method of fantasy theme analysis, this paper distills an overall rhetorical vision conveyed through these cartoons, as well as the building blocks – fantasy themes and fantasy types – of that shared vision. Cartoons in this set perform a kind of multimodal boundary work around isolationist editorial policies, but some indications of the cartoonist as independent “graphic columnist” also emerge.