4 ‘The international Siamese twins’
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Stephen Tuffnell
Abstract
This chapter argues that American graphic artists refigured the visual language of Anglo-American relations into a versatile and adaptable imagery for understanding the United States’ place in world affairs, and its newfound status as an empire among empires. This imagery of Anglo-American imperial reciprocity competed with the better-known, and versatile visual culture of American Anglophobia in the late nineteenth century. Anglophobia provided a flexible framework into which American politicians and commentators could position complex political problems, ignite electoral passions, and rally support for foreign policy objectives. As the growth of the US economy accelerated in the Gilded Age, John Bull and Uncle Sam appeared frequently as industrial and commercial competitors. In the imagery of economic nationalism, John Bull was imagined as being crowded out of world markets; defeated by a wealthy and assertive Uncle Sam, in the industries at which he traditionally excelled. However, united by imperial warfare, colonial insurgencies, and nervousness over the future of world politics, John Bull and Uncle Sam were also reformulated as partners in the quest for global leadership. The iconography of inter-imperialism celebrated shared cultural and social interconnections and featured new hybrid symbols of Anglo-American global leadership.
Abstract
This chapter argues that American graphic artists refigured the visual language of Anglo-American relations into a versatile and adaptable imagery for understanding the United States’ place in world affairs, and its newfound status as an empire among empires. This imagery of Anglo-American imperial reciprocity competed with the better-known, and versatile visual culture of American Anglophobia in the late nineteenth century. Anglophobia provided a flexible framework into which American politicians and commentators could position complex political problems, ignite electoral passions, and rally support for foreign policy objectives. As the growth of the US economy accelerated in the Gilded Age, John Bull and Uncle Sam appeared frequently as industrial and commercial competitors. In the imagery of economic nationalism, John Bull was imagined as being crowded out of world markets; defeated by a wealthy and assertive Uncle Sam, in the industries at which he traditionally excelled. However, united by imperial warfare, colonial insurgencies, and nervousness over the future of world politics, John Bull and Uncle Sam were also reformulated as partners in the quest for global leadership. The iconography of inter-imperialism celebrated shared cultural and social interconnections and featured new hybrid symbols of Anglo-American global leadership.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xvi
- Acknowledgements xxi
- 1 Introduction 1
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PART I: High imperialism and colonialism
- 2 Courting the colonies 31
- 3 ‘Master Jonathan’ in Cuba 66
- 4 ‘The international Siamese twins’ 92
- 5 ‘“Every dog” (no distinction of color) “has his day”’ 134
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PART II: The critique of empire and the context of decolonisation
- 6 The making of harmony and war, from New Year Prints to propaganda cartoons during China’s Second Sino-Japanese War 161
- 7 David Low and India 192
- 8 Between imagined and ‘real’ 216
- 9 The iconography of decolonisation in the cartoons of the Suez Crisis, 1956 242
- 10 Punch and the Cyprus emergency, 1955–1959 277
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PART III: Ambiguities of empire
- 11 Outrage and imperialism, confusion and indifference 305
- 12 Ambiguities in the fight waged by the socialist satirical review Der Wahre Jacob against militarism and imperialism 334
- 13 The ‘confounded socialists’ and the ‘Commonwealth Co-operative Society’ 362
- 14 Australian cartoonists at the end of empire 393
- Index 426
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xvi
- Acknowledgements xxi
- 1 Introduction 1
-
PART I: High imperialism and colonialism
- 2 Courting the colonies 31
- 3 ‘Master Jonathan’ in Cuba 66
- 4 ‘The international Siamese twins’ 92
- 5 ‘“Every dog” (no distinction of color) “has his day”’ 134
-
PART II: The critique of empire and the context of decolonisation
- 6 The making of harmony and war, from New Year Prints to propaganda cartoons during China’s Second Sino-Japanese War 161
- 7 David Low and India 192
- 8 Between imagined and ‘real’ 216
- 9 The iconography of decolonisation in the cartoons of the Suez Crisis, 1956 242
- 10 Punch and the Cyprus emergency, 1955–1959 277
-
PART III: Ambiguities of empire
- 11 Outrage and imperialism, confusion and indifference 305
- 12 Ambiguities in the fight waged by the socialist satirical review Der Wahre Jacob against militarism and imperialism 334
- 13 The ‘confounded socialists’ and the ‘Commonwealth Co-operative Society’ 362
- 14 Australian cartoonists at the end of empire 393
- Index 426
