"The Art of Ill Will" is a comprehensive history of American political cartooning, featuring over two hundred illustrations. From the colonial period to contemporary cartoonists like Pat Oliphant and Jimmy Margulies, Donald Dewey highlights these artists" uncanny ability to encapsulate the essence of a situation and to steer the public mood with a single drawing and caption. Taking advantage of unlimited access to "The Granger Collection", which holds thousands of the most significant works of Thomas Nast and other early American cartoonists, "The Art of Ill Will" provides a survey of American history writ large, capturing the voice of the people - hopeful, angry, patriotic, frustrated - in times of peace and war, prosperity and depression. Dewey tracks the cartoonist"s role as a jester with a serious brief. Ulysses S. Grant credited cartoonists with helping him win his election and was not the only president to feel that way; political bosses and even state legislatures have sought...