Talk:Thomas Nast

more?

where can you get more thomas nast political cartoons

You can find plenty on the Thomas Nast Website. Check the external links.

Nast and the Democratic Donkey

According to Stephen Hess and Milton Kaplan's "The Ungentlemanly Art" the attribution of the Democratic Donkey to Nast is incorrect.

Slavery Clarification

In regard to this quote: "In general he was well known in his time for his political cartoons supporting American Indians, Chinese Americans and advocating abolition of slavery."

As to advocating abolition, wasn't Nast only a teenager when the Civil War ended? Can anyone verify the last part of this line? If it implies anything else (or is not localized to the US) it should be clarified; otherwise, removed.

Wasn't Nast a teenager? Um, check the entry right after his name for the pertinent dates -- of course you know already know when the Civil War took place, right? TresÁrboles 05:08, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

I certainly do know; I think I was having a slow moment when I wrote that and calculated his age as ten years younger -- thanks! AdamantlyMike 05:13, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Nast's Anti-Catholicism and Anti-Irish Bigotry

It would be worthwhile to note that in an effort to discredit the Democratic Party, Nash published cartoons that played upon the old Know-Nothing aversion to immigrants and Catholicism. File:AntiIrish.gif

Nast and Stereotypes.

The main article states that Nast supported both Native Americans and Chineese Americans. This, for the most part, isn't true. While drawing in support of what was termed the "skeleton army" on the frontier, Nast usually drew Native American either as drunk savages or raging brutes out to kill as many settlers as possible. Through out his career, Nast was anti-immigration, and treated Asian immigrants no differntly than he did the Irish, always drawing them with stereotypical pigtails and robes. His blind support for Grant and radical Republican policy led him to savage Greely, Johnson, and anyone who opposed punishing the south to the fullest extent (contrary to what Lincoln wanted). Nast continued to give the Grant administration the benifit of the doubt until the scandals finally were too much to ignore.

That said, even though Nast did have blinders on sometimes, it is impossible to deny his impact. He was a genius, and his drawings still carry a powerful impact. Even the cartoons that have gross stereotypes, taken in context of the time period they were drawn, never fail to deliver their message. He was very influential in derailing the campaigns of Greely and Blaine, and probably helped get Johnson impeached. This greatest contribution, the distruction of the Tweed ring, should always be remembered as an example of the good the media is capable of. ________________________

His great grandson attended the Governor Dummer Academy in the late 1960s where he was an underground cartoonist, among other things. Tom Cod

Response to "Nast and Stereotypes"

Uhhh... How much of Nast's work have you seen? The vast majority of it is sympathetic to the respective plights of Native Americans and African Americans. You might want to check out "The Art and Politics of Thomas Nast" by Morton Keller. I cannot believe nobody referenced this book in the Nast page. Ivangeotsky

Nast Article Nds. Wrk.

There is a ton of material available regarding Nast's working methods, cultural influence, and historical import. Why is the Nast article so meagre? (No offense intended to the authors who've worked on it.) Ivangeotsky