February 11, 2005

'Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons'

By NINA C. AYOUB

If political cartoonists were to draw Chris Lamb, it might be as their knight, charging into battle. There's no mistaking the passion in Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons (Columbia University Press).

Armed with 150 cartoons to illustrate his arguments, Mr. Lamb champions cartoonists as social critics at a time when fewer and fewer American newspapers have an inkster on staff. If editors and publishers plead poverty in this era of declining circulation, he