Cartoon Conflicts Contemporary Controversies and Historical Precedents

This edited collection of new research highlights the way in which the cartoon - long regarded as a staple of journalism and freedom of expression - faces new challenges in the twenty-first century that can be far better understood and appreciated if one takes an historical perspective. Current debates over the limits of freedom of expression, 'political correctness', and 'cancel culture' all have their precedents in past controversies over cartoons and caricature; indeed there is a definite continuum between these past instances of debate and their present manifestations.

Chapters 2 and 10 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

1: Introduction.- 2: The Political Cartoon – History and Historiography.- 3: Striking Weapons: Cartoons during the American Civil War, 1861-1865.- 4: Culture Wars within a ‘United’ Kingdom: Irish Cartoons in a British Empire, 1870-1872.- 5: Caricature and identity crisis on the satirical war between Punch and Pontos nos ii (1889-90).- 6: ‘“Why should public men be held up to ridicule?”: The George Reid Caricature Controversy of 1904 and its Echoes in the Continuities and Discontinuities in     Australia in 2012.- 7: The Conspiracy of Laughter: Cartoons and their Critics in India.- 8: Brazilian Disputed Imaginaries: Graphic Humour in the Black and Indigenous Press in the 1970s-80s.- 9: The Decade of Jyllands Posten and Charlie Hebdo: 2005-2015.- 10: Mark Knight versus Serena Williams – Game, Set, and Match for Political Correctness?.- 11: A Blind Man and a Dog Walk into a Cartoon: The Limits of Humour, Antisemitism and Racism and Informal Censorship in the Contemporary Liberal Press.- 12: Zapiro as Zorro: Political Cartooning during the South African HIV/AIDS Crisis.- 13: Conclusion.

Richard Scully is Professor in Modern History at the University of New England, Australia.

Paulo Jorge Fernandes is Assistant Professor in History at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.

Ritu Gairola Khanduri is Associate Professor in Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA.