Thomas Nast

Long regarded as the first great American political cartoonist, Thomas Nast (1840-1902) gave the nation its image of the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant. His other political drawings, his campaign against the Tammany Hall political machine in 1871, and his enormously popular Santa Claus pictures for Harper's Weekly all belong to his legacy, as do the sharp social commentaries that pushed audiences to face the inconsistencies of their age.

Fiona Deans Halloran's biography centers on Nast's cartoons for Harper's and on how he fit into the tangled politics of the Gilded Age. It also looks closely at the tensions within Nast himself. An immigrant who attacked other immigrant groups, he backed civil rights while depicting Black men as foolish children who needed direction, and he opposed corruption and hypocrisy even as he admired Ulysses S. Grant. His circle ranged from allies such as Mark Twain to adversaries such as William M. "Boss" Tweed.

Halloran reads Nast's work closely, examines what drove him and what he believed in, and traces how his influence continues to shape American political culture.