Originally posted 04 May 2012

The crusade against alcohol in America continued long after Prohibition was repealed, and at the outset of World War II anti-alcohol activists tried to use that conflict as an excuse to reinstate the ban on liquor production. A San Diego-based editorial cartoonist named Theodore Geisel responded with this cartoon:

Yes, that is Carrie Nation as envisioned by Dr. Seuss, axe in hand and ready to smash rum barrels. Geisel’s work as an editorial cartoonist is less known than his children’s books, but it is worth a look just to see how his graphic style was used to make fun of Hitler, Mussolini, and other targets. (Photo used by permission of Geisel archive.)