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This is a cartoon of Thomas Nast who was a political cartoonist for Harper's Weekly. He worked for Harper's Weekly from 1859 to 1886, depicting many people in the government as well as things that were happening during that time. Nast depicted himself in this cartoon as the center of Harper's Weekly as to say that his cartoons were the most popular aspect of the Journal. Since he is in front and is in clear, and the rest is in the background, it shows that he thought his cartoons were the most important part in showing what was going on during that time period.



This cartoon is of William M. Tweed Jr. also known as Boss Tweed. He was involved in a “shady campagin” when running for the house of representatives. Tweed would threaten and scare away honest voters, while he would assist in the transportation of voters who would vote for him more than once. In addtion, Tweed would give bribe the clergy for their support. This explains the cartoon, the box that Tweed is leaning on that says “in couting there is strength”, represents the number of votes is all that matter it is all he needs to win the election, what he has to do to win those votes does not matter.

Caption: Little Andy builds one of his many libraries after winning a game of Monopoly

This cartoon is of Andrew Carnegie known as the richest person of his time period. He monopolized the steel industry with his US Steel in the early 1900s. This explains why the cartoon says, “after winning a game of monopoly”, although Carnegie paid his workers very little under poor conditions. Andrew Carnegie is philanthropist meaning he gave much of his money to causes. He focused much of his efforts on libraries he funded over two thousand libraries in the United States and Europe and in the cartoon he ironically spells out library with blocks.



This is a cartoon of John D. Rockefelller who was the owner of an oil company named Standard Oil, and depicts him as the king of the oil company. This company was a monopoly, which the cartoon shows which Rockefeller on top because he was the owner. The money shows that he was a very rich man due to his company profits, and the world in his one hand shows that his company was the biggest in the world. The oil lamp shows he was lighting the way for the oil industry by himself, expanding the company until it became the biggest.



Social Darwinism is a theory that was made known by Herbert Spencer in the early 1900s. The theory states that the strong survive and the weak perish. The caption “a white man’s burden” refers to a poem about when Europe and United States tried to “civilize” Africa in the early 1900s. They used Social Darwinism as an excuse for doing this. The irony of the cartoon is the burden is on the Africans because they are carrying the white man. The cartoonist point is becoming civilized is more of a burden for the Africans than the United States or the “White Man”.



This cartoon is about John Pierpont Morgan also known as JP Morgan. Morgan was a well-known businessman of the era. He founded the banking house JP Morgan Co. he also helped to create the monopoly with in the steel industry. He combined Andrew Carnegie’s company (Carnegie Steel) with the Federal Steel Company to generate a monopoly in the steel industry. This cartoon depicts Morgan with big glass of Monopoly Whisky, which represents his monopolization of the steel industry. We could not read the other smaller glass completely, but we think it reads “titanium”. This is supposed to represent the small titanium industry compared to steel. This would make sense because Morgan is saying, “I like a “little” competition.”



This cartoon is about Barack Obama and his duties in office. Though he continues to focus on matters that he thinks will help, the economy is still suffering. As he continues his presidency, he says he is working on the economy, but is really focusing on smaller matters, as you can see with his dog and the big dog resembling the economy. It is obvious he knows the economy is not fixed, but is not doing anything about it. This cartoon is about the rising unemployment rates in the United States. In the last year, the unemployment rate went from 5.2% to 9.0%. That is alot in just one year, which is why this cartoon pictures so many people. Also the person who didnt graduate is showing that everyone is at risk of unemployment, even if they are just starting to enter the workforce. This also shows us that many younger people are not going to be able to get a job and start their own life. This cartoon shows a man doing his taxes, getting very angry. The tax rates have been going up in the past year from $100 dollars to $2,000 per household. The government thinks that lowering taxes for lower class and raising them for the rich will help out the United States population of taxpayers, but in reality it is angering more people as you can see in the cartoon. There is obviously a lot of papers and files to fill out and complete for taxes which depicts the annual frusteration of paying taxes, and the increasing rates are even more frusterating.

Kali Yext and Joelle Smith