Imagining brotherhood: the comics of the American Jewish Committee, 1941 - 1948

摘要

This thesis argues that the comics produced by the American Jewish Committee duringudand immediately after the Second World War are significant cultural artifacts thatudvisualized complex political messages to millions of American workers and soldiers.udThe comics Three Pals and Extra Effort claimed patriotic citizenship for AmericanudJewish men participating in the war effort at home and on the front. They formulated audpowerful American individual and social body, a brotherhood, capable of winning theudwar. The comics There Are No Master Races! and They Got the Blame employedudscientific advances in the understandings of cultural development and race to argue thatudracial and religious brotherhood was the natural way of human existence.udSimultaneously, they defined those who opposed racial and religious brotherhood asudpsychologically disturbed individuals who threatened the stability of the Americanudsocial mind and American democracy. The comics The Story of Labor and Joe Workerudlabored the fight for brotherhood by unifying it with the post-war goals of the nationaludlabor unions. Ultimately, in these comics the AJC defined the meaning of Americanism,udclaimed a place for American Jews in national culture and politics, and constructedudAmerican capitalist democracy as the only system capable of securing domesticudeconomic stability and world peace.