Theodor Geisel, better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, is an illustrious figure in Dartmouth’s history. A legendary illustrator, cartoonist, medical school namesake and children’s author, the member of the Class of 1925 had a lengthy and fruitful career spanning eight decades.
Some of his cartoons from the World War II-era have recently resurfaced and sparked controversy over racist depictions, particularly of Japanese Americans. This backlash led, in part, to Dr. Seuss’s estate discontinuing six of his books in 2021.
However, focusing solely on this aspect of his wartime work detracts from the vital role he played in promoting other social issues, standing up to forces of fascism, antisemitism, racism, tyranny and complacency long before it was fashionable to do so.
After war broke out in Europe and Nazi Germany swept across the continent, Geisel — then an advertising illustrator and burgeoning children’s author — began expressing his passionate opposition to fascism abroad and isolationism at home. He began drawing for PM, a staunchly liberal, FDR-aligned New York newspaper, ultimately creating over 400 editorial cartoons.
Geisel raised the alarm about the dangers and evils of fascism. In his view, the spread of war from Europe and Asia to the Western Hemisphere was inevitable, and isolationism — the American consensus at the time — would only exacerbate the crisis. This put him at odds with the America First Committee, a well-funded isolationist organization fronted by the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh. Geisel used his stinging wit to rebuke Lindbergh as a Nazi sympathizer and accused the committee of making the nation dangerously unprepared for war.
Here are a few of his finest punches:
Reviewing his cartoons today, it may feel slightly disorienting to see such distinctly Seussian creatures laden with political messages — or even swastikas — but at the time it made Dr. Seuss a respected name in anti-fascist and progressive circles long before “Horton Hears a Who!,” “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham” turned him into a global phenomenon.
Some of his works have enjoyed remarkable longevity, still circulating on platforms like X and Reddit to this day. The quip “But those were Foreign Children and it really didn’t matter,” remains as relevant today as it was eight decades ago. What’s past is prologue.
On Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dr. Seuss drew one of the most brazen “I-told-you-so”s of all time. The warnings against isolationism in the cartoons he had spent the better part of a year drawing had come to fruition. He was proven right — America could not, despite its best intentions, keep itself out of war.
Dr. Seuss continued to draw for PM after America entered the war, mocking Hitler, Mussolini and Imperial Japan and vocally supporting America’s home front. Yet he didn’t simply cheerlead; Geisel also criticized U.S. policies that limited Black Americans’ participation in the war. Too old for the draft, he volunteered for the U.S. Army, where he commanded the Animation Department of its Motion Picture Unit, creating training and propaganda films. He rose to the rank of major and was awarded the Legion of Merit for exemplary service.
After the war, Geisel rarely acknowledged his problematic World War II-era output. In a rare exception, he wrote a letter to the editor regarding a 1976 Dartmouth Alumni Magazine article that omitted his work at PM. Geisel was thoughtful in his reflection, admitting that the cartoons were “full of many snap judgments that every political cartoonist has to make between the time he hears the news at 9 a.m. and sends his drawing to press at 5 p.m.”
Today, it is important to remember that we were at war, after all, irrefutably fighting forces of pure evil. Even the otherwise progressive Geisel could be swept up in the wartime paranoia and be swept up in hateful beliefs. That doesn’t excuse it or make it right — but it did happen, and it happened for a reason.
The next time we at Dartmouth either celebrate or critique this treasured yet polarizing alumnus, we should remember him not just as an innovative children’s author or sometimes-problematic cartoonist, but as a trailblazer against fascism who played his own small part in waking America from its isolationist slumber.
