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The Rise of Italian Fascism and Its Influence on Europe
A 1942 political cartoon by Theodor Seuss Geisel entitled “Jitters a la Duce.”

A 1942 political cartoon by Theodor Seuss Geisel entitled “Jitters a la Duce.”

Geisel, known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, produced a slew of politically-charged cartoons during World War II. From 1941 to 1943 Dr. Seuss was the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM; he drew over four hundred editorial cartoons for this publication during a two-year span. In other cartoons, Seuss shows how Mussolini used propaganda to inflate his own abilities—showing himself flying an airplane, using perspective to make his figure larger than others’, and even standing on a tank as it rolls through a crowd of onlookers.

Citation Information
Seuss, “Jitters a la Duce,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/afef6025dd7e1a8ae2221aa16bc535f2.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of UC San Diego Library, Special Collections and Archives via California Digital Library.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 6 of 12 in the Primary Source Set The Rise of Italian Fascism and Its Influence on Europe

Previous ItemNext Item
A drawing of a fasces by Giuseppe Barberi (1746–1809) of Italy.
An excerpt from Giuseppe Prezzolini’s book Fascism.
The book jacket of The Official Life of Benito Mussolini (1939) by Giorgio Pini.
A photograph of Hitler Youth (“boy Nazis”) marching in 1932.
A photograph of Italian and German youth marching together.
A 1942 political cartoon by Theodor Seuss Geisel entitled “Jitters a la Duce.”
An excerpt from a book discussing Francisco Franco, the fascist leader of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975.
A 1940 map describing Italy’s plan to rebuild the Roman empire, taken from the newspaper The San Francisco Examiner.
A Spanish poster showing opposition to fascism under Franco’s regime.
A 1939 political cartoon suggesting that the United States Congress feels pressured to respond to fascist aggression.
A swastika flag, adopted by the Nazi party in Germany in 1920.
A news bulletin from the American Nationalist Confederation explaining the meaning of the swastika to its membership.

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