Comic Books and America, 1945-1954. by William W.

Savage,
Review by: Michele Hilmes
The Journal of American History, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Dec., 1991), pp. 1146-1147
Published by: Organization of American Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2078941 .
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1146

TheJournalof AmericanHistory

mustbe a coequalintellivive"theCongress
rather
thana bodytobeavoided
gencepartner
A partnerin what?Secrecy
and denigrated."
and privatewars?
andthe
Giventhewaythedebateisframed
ratherthan
focuson theprocessofoversight
wasdocommunity
thethings
theintelligence
ing and as oftenas notlyingabout,Smist's
"The
comesas no surprise.
cheeryconclusion
devisedby
democracy
ofrepresentative
system
byseparation
theFounders
and characterized
ofpowers
andchecksandbalanceshascreaked
andgroanedattimesbut,despiteitsimperfecThedreamoftheFounders
tions,itstillworks.
and of individualslike Churchillendures."
Churchill?
SpySaga is lessassuring.Melansonseesa
ofLee
bitoftruthin thepop interpretations
Oswald,theallegedpawnoftheradical
Harvey
OrCastro.Orthemob.
right.OrtheRussians.
to
lendshimself
OrtheCIA. "Oswaldactually
Melanson
portraits,"
all of thesedivergent
"dossieron Oswald
writesin thisproclaimed
thespy."But therealmeatis to be foundin
comlinkswiththeUnitedStatesintelligence
Oswaldspentnearmunity,
where"LeeHarvey
ly all of his adult lifeworking. . . mostlikely
. . . in
forthe CIA- as an agent-provocateur

arenas,
boththe domesticand international
in the assassirightup to his involvement
nation."
tothewacky
never
quitedescends
Melanson
he closeshis
levelofthedevoutconspiracist;
- "If somecabal
dossierwitha qualification
conspiredto subvertthe demosuccessfully
citizens'
balcratic
bydisenfranchising
process
lots and bullets."The WarrenCommission
viewofthelone nutwitha cheaprifleis not
Oswald:U.S.
laidtorest.Norhas"LeeHarvey
been transagent-provocateur"
intelligence
formedintowhattheauthorcalls"byfarthe
assassin
(alleged
mostfascinating
andcomplex
ThevalueofSpySaoractual)inU.S.history."
thedegreetowhich
ga liesin itsilluminating
havedenied
CIA officials
facelessand tireless
thecourts,
notonlyto Congress,
information
bureauandthepublicbuteventotheirfellow
cubbiesandtothepresicratsintheirLangley
denthimself.
KennethO'Reilly
University
ofAlaska
Anchorage

December1991

ComicBooksand America,1945-1954.By

of
WilliamW. Savage,Jr.(Norman:University
Oklahoma Press,1990. xiv + 151pp. $16.95.)

In ComicBooksand America,William W.
Savage,Jr.,takeson a projectwhosevalidityhe
is quite right in assuming and defending:
namely,that analysisof a popular art form
suchas comicbookscan provideus witha kind
of"intellectualhistory"moretrueto prevalent
culturalvalues than "the 'isms' by which the
academy measures the convolutionsof the
Americanmind." Savage's book joins a growing body of analysisof the comic book as art,
narrative,and social phenomenon.
Aftera briefoverviewofthehistoryofcomic books from1929 to 1945, Savage looks at
severalrecurringthemes fromcomics of the
period: "theBomb,"the"Red Menace,"Korea,
thefigureof thecowboy.A chapteron "jungle
ofwomcomics"introducestherepresentation
en and blacks,followedby a discussionof the
impact of publication of FredricWertham's
SeductionoftheInnocentin 1954. Each brief
chapter is illustratedby a black-and-white
reproductionof a representative
comic.
ComicBooksandAmericaprovidesa lively
of a few
and highlyreadable interpretation
specifictypesof comics popular during the
period, but it also has some problems that
make the book, overall, less useful than it
could be. Savage tells us in his introduction
thathis themesreflect"topicsof concernduring the decade," based on theirprevalencein
other media, which he gives "the relative
weight that they seemed to possess at the
time."If the body of comicsthemselvesshows
is an
thematicstrands,however,
manydifferent
emphasis that is limited to these particular
of the conthemesin facta misrepresentation
ofthetime,no matterwhatthe
cernsofcomics
presumeddominantsocial concerns?According to Mike Benton's The ComicBook in
America (1989), almost one-third of the
comicspublished duringthisperiod fell into
theromancegenre-which presumablywould
but equally relevant
deal witha verydifferent
set of concerns.
Anotherquestionconcernsaudience:Who
almost
read thesecomics?Savage concentrates
on those thatcateredto an adolesexclusively
cent white male audience, a bias acknowl-

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Book Reviews

edgedatvarious
pointsin thebook.Butsince
of "the
hisstudyis setup as an examination
of
culturalcontextof a postwargeneration
inyoungreaders,"
thefactthatthisgeneration
cludedotherthanwhitemalesoughtto have
"represenbeentakenintoaccountinselecting
toBentative"
themesandvenues.(According
ton,48 percent
ofthecomicbookaudiencein
thoughSavagedoes
1950wasfemale.)Finally,
with
statefromtheoutsetthathe isconcerned
thisseemsa some"content
rather
thanstyle,"
limiwhatnaiveandultimately
self-defeating
givenwithin
the
tation.Eveninthesummaries
ofsatireandvisualirony
book,someelements
canbe detected
thatSavagedescribes
butdoes
notfactorintohis analysis.
as wellas a scholar;
Savageis an enthusiast
thisis a combination
thatcan producesome
ofthebestand mostilluminating
readings
of
It can also lead to
anycultural
phenomenon.
a lack of analyticaland historicalrigor.
toolsareat ourdisposal;itdoes
Sophisticated
not to use them.
ourfielda disservice
MicheleHilmes
SpringHill College
TheNew YorkIntellectuals
CriticalCrossings:
in PostwarAmerica.By Neil Jumonville.
Press,1991.
(Berkeley:
University
ofCalifornia
xx + 291 pp. $24.95.)

This studyof the New Yorkintellectualsthe

writers
forPartisan
Review,Commentary,
Public Interest,and otherjournals-starts
withtheprotests
SidneyHookled againstthe
pro-Soviet
bias of the 1949 Waldorfworld
It endswiththe 1983neopeaceconference.
conference
conservative
at the Plaza Hotel
American
culture
defending
againstitsdetracshortbiogrators.ThoughNeilJumonville's
phies of Hook, DwightMacdonald,Irving
Harold
Howe,NathanGlazer,LionelTrilling,
ClementGreenberg,
and Daniel
Rosenberg,
in the
Belllookbacktothegroup'sformation
left-wing,
anti-Stalinist
circlesof the 1930s,
thegroup'spostwar
thisbookhighlights
battlesagainstCommunism,
massculture,
bohemianism,
andtheNewLeft.Allthese,theNew
orabYorkgroupbelieved,
restedonromantic
solutist
tenetsat oddswithskeptical,
rational
Defining
thought
and hostileto freeinquiry.

1147

and defending
the intellectual
vocationbecamethegroup's
collective
project,
Jumonville
writes,
and insteadofplacingthesewriters
at
thecrossroads
oftwentieth-century
politics,
he
linksthemwitha tradition
ofgeneralcultural
criticismstretching
back to Ralph Waldo
Emerson.
Thustheirmidcentury
politicalshift
fromLeftto Rightloses salience,and their
postwar
workappears"thenaturaloutcomeof
theirearlyoutlook"aimed,Jumonville
says,at
preserving
elitecultureagainstthemasses.
DespiteJumonville's
attemptto privilege
intellectualism
as such,he providesevidence
of the group'spersistent
politicalimpulses.
NathanGlazer,forinstance,
has claimedhis
academicwork"couldbe seenas thepursuit
ofpoliticsthrough
othermeans."LionelTrilling too stroveto maintainthepoliticalrelevanceof his work,whiletrying
to balanceit
concernssuch as moral
againstnonpolitical
judgment,scholarly
responsibility,
and aestheticvaluation.Indeed,theanxiety
Jumonvillefinds
widespread
amongthegrouptofind
in
balance,poise,or a "senseofproportion"
all thingsgrewinpartfromthedilemmacona styleof"criticism"
boundbyCold
fronting
to"affirm"
norms.
Warloyalties
Unprevailing
thatdilemmawasa decisivepolitical
derlying
choice- forthestatusquo-which characterized thepostwar
experience
formostofthese
writers.
treatsthe group'spreoccupaJumonville
tionwiththestatusoftheintellectual
vocation
asa high-toned
moralexercise.
Theyweretroubled,he says,oversuchquestionsas "Whatis
Justas Nasufficient
intellectual
integrity?"
than Glazerrecalledhis parents'politicsas
one wonders
butnottoosocialist,"
"Socialist,
whetherintellectuals
shouldhave integrity,
TheNewYorkinbutnottoomuchintegrity.
tellectualswill be judged,however,
not by
whattheysaidaboutbeinganintellectual,
but
bywhattheysaid(orfailedto say)aboutthe
worldthatstretches
beyondtheWaldorfand
thePlaza.
HowardBrick
University
of Oregon

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