You probably grew up with the Cat in the Hat. Or maybe you have a soft spot for that fuzzy, orange Lorax who speaks for the trees. But here’s the thing: before Theodor Seuss Geisel became the king of rhyming children’s books, he was a guy with a serious temper and a very sharp pen.
Between 1941 and 1943, Geisel produced over 400 dr seuss political comics for a left-wing New York newspaper called PM.
This wasn’t some side hobby. It was a full-blown obsession.
If you look at these cartoons today, they’re jarring. You’ll see the same whimsical, loopy lines that defined Green Eggs and Ham, but instead of Sam-I-Am, you’re looking at Hitler, Mussolini, and some pretty brutal caricatures that make modern readers flinch. Honestly, the shift from "hop on pop" to "hang the dictators" is a lot to take in.
The Newspaper That Let Seuss Be Mean
Theodor Geisel didn't just stumble into political cartooning. He was a man deeply unsettled by the rise of fascism in Europe. He felt that the United States was being dangerously naive.
The newspaper PM was the perfect home for him. It was an experimental tabloid that didn't take ads. Because they weren't beholden to corporate sponsors, they could be as loud and aggressive as they wanted. Geisel fit right in. He became the chief editorial cartoonist, using his space to blast isolationists—people who thought the U.S. should stay out of World War II.
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He had a specific target: the "America First" movement.
In one of his most famous dr seuss political comics, he drew a woman wearing an "America First" sweater reading a book titled Adolf the Wolf to two horrified children. The caption basically mocked the idea that the "wolf" would only eat the neighbor's kids and leave hers alone. It was a scathing indictment of the belief that the Atlantic Ocean was a sufficient shield against the Nazis.
Who Was on the Receiving End of the Pen?
- Charles Lindbergh: The famous aviator was a leading voice for isolationism. Geisel relentlessly mocked him, often drawing him as a naive fool or a "Laddie with a Siamese Beard" conjoined with Hitler.
- Adolf Hitler: Seuss portrayed him as a mad scientist, a trophy hunter, and even a guy getting orders from the devil.
- The Republican Party: He often depicted them as obstructionists who were slowing down the war effort and refusing to support the USSR against Germany.
The Complicated Reality of the Japanese Caricatures
We have to talk about the elephant in the room. Not Horton—the actual, ugly reality of Geisel’s wartime racism.
While he was lightyears ahead of his time regarding anti-Semitism and Jim Crow laws (he drew several cartoons slamming the "U.S. Side Show" of racial segregation), he had a massive blind spot when it came to Japan.
After Pearl Harbor, Geisel’s work took a dark turn. He drew cartoons that depicted Japanese-Americans as a "fifth column" of traitors. One particularly infamous comic shows a long line of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast waiting to pick up blocks of TNT from a "signal from home."
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It’s a disturbing piece of history. These images helped fuel the climate of fear that led to the internment of over 120,000 people of Japanese descent.
Historian Richard H. Minear, who wrote the definitive book Dr. Seuss Goes to War, points out that Geisel was "just as blind as everybody else" in this regard. He was tapping into a deep well of anti-Asian sentiment that was common in the 1940s, even among progressives.
The Great Evolution: From Anger to "Horton Hears a Who!"
Here is where the story gets interesting for those of us who love his books. Geisel didn't stay the man who drew those TNT blocks. He evolved.
In 1953, Geisel visited Japan. He saw the aftermath of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. He talked to the people. He realized the humanity he had ignored during the heat of the war.
Most scholars now agree that Horton Hears a Who! (1954) was a direct apology. The book is dedicated to Mitsugi Nakamura, a Japanese friend Geisel met on that trip. When Horton says, "A person’s a person, no matter how small," he’s not just talking about Whos on a speck of dust. He’s talking about the very people Geisel had spent years dehumanizing in his dr seuss political comics.
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Tracing the Political DNA in the Classics
Once you know about his time at PM, you start seeing the politics everywhere in the children's books:
- Yertle the Turtle (1958): Geisel once admitted Yertle was a stand-in for Hitler. The turtle king builds his throne on the backs of his subjects until a "burp" from the bottom topples the whole thing.
- The Sneetches (1961): This is a direct parable about anti-Semitism and racial prejudice. The stars on the bellies are a clear nod to the Yellow Stars Jews were forced to wear in Nazi-occupied Europe.
- The Lorax (1971): This was his environmental manifesto. It was actually banned in some logging towns because it was seen as "anti-industry."
- The Butter Battle Book (1984): Written during the Cold War, this is a satire of the nuclear arms race. Two groups of people—the Yooks and the Zooks—threaten to blow each other up because they can't agree on which side of the bread to butter.
Why Does This Still Matter in 2026?
We live in a world that loves to "cancel" historical figures the second a problematic Tweet or drawing surfaces. But Dr. Seuss is a more complex case study. He was a man of his time who eventually realized his time was wrong.
He didn't just stop drawing the "bad" stuff; he actively used his platform to teach the opposite values to the next generation. He went from a guy drawing "America First" satires to a guy warning us that the Lorax wouldn't stay if we didn't take care of the planet.
His journey shows that someone can be a fierce advocate for justice in one area (anti-fascism) while being totally wrong in another (racism against the Japanese), and then spend the rest of their life trying to bridge that gap.
How to Explore This History Yourself
If you want to see the dr seuss political comics for yourself, you don't have to hunt down 80-year-old newspapers.
- Read "Dr. Seuss Goes to War": Richard H. Minear’s book is the gold standard. It collects the cartoons and gives you the historical context you need so you aren't just looking at weird drawings without knowing what was happening in the news that week.
- Visit the Mandeville Special Collections Library: If you're ever in San Diego, the UC San Diego library holds the original archives.
- Re-read the "Big Three": Take another look at The Sneetches, The Lorax, and The Butter Battle Book. Now that you know about his background at PM, the "preachy" parts of these books will make a lot more sense.
Don't just take the "sanitized" version of Dr. Seuss. The man was a fighter, a flawed human, and a cartoonist who believed that a drawing could actually change the world. Sometimes he used that power for good, and sometimes he didn't, but he never stopped trying to figure out which was which.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check out the digital archives: Many of the PM cartoons are now available online through the University of California, San Diego. Searching for specific dates from 1941 will show you the exact climate Geisel was reacting to.
- Audit your bookshelf: Look at your Seuss collection. The Butter Battle Book is often skipped in modern classrooms because it doesn't have a "happy" ending, but it’s arguably his most important piece of political commentary.
- Watch the documentaries: "The Political Dr. Seuss" (available on various streaming platforms) features interviews with his biographers and shows the transition from his advertising work for Flit bug spray to his wartime propaganda.