PROGRAM IN NORWICH TUESDAY WILL EXPLORE POLITICAL CARTOONS OF DR. SEUSS

Norwich — There will be a program Tuesday on works by Dr. Seuss, but don’t expect new insight into the Cat in the Hat or the Lorax or various Who characters.

Matthew Warshauer, a professor at Central Connecticut State University will present the program: “Dr. Seuss, Political Cartoons & the Battle over Isolationism in World War I and World War II America” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Park Congregational Church, 283 Broadway, in front of Norwich Free Academy.

The program is free and open to the public and sponsored by the Norwich city historian and the Norwich World War I Memorial Committee, with space provided by Park Congregational Church. Refreshments will be served.

The program will explore the story of America’s struggle over its place in world affairs during the first half of the 20th century. Through the use of compelling cartoons and period prints, Warshauer will tell the story of the nation’s political struggles entering World War I, the blitz of pro-war propaganda that followed U.S. entry into the conflict, the subsequent return to isolationism when Congress refused to join the League of Nations after the war, and how that opposition to European wars influenced America’s late entry into World War II.

Artists such as Dr. Seuss and Clifford Berryman portrayed shifts in foreign policy through their art, and in doing so informed a nation on American foreign policy.

Warshauer was co-chairman of the Connecticut Civil War 150th anniversary commemoration. He has authored two books on Andrew Jackson and two books on Connecticut during the Civil War and is working on a fifth book.

For information, contact Norwich city Historian Dale Plummer at cityhistorian@norwichct.org.