America's Black and White Book: One Hundred Pictured Reasons Why We Are At War — A Closer Reading

Cartoon as Editorial Argument

Rogers's captions do more than label images; they advance a prosecutorial case. For instance, cartoon 57 quotes German Foreign Secretary Von Jagow stating "Pirates and Privateers no longer exist," while the image shows a U-boat sinking a ship—an implicit charge of broken promises. Similarly, cartoon 56, "On the sinking of a hospital ship," pairs a visual of a sinking vessel with a caption that condemns the act as a war crime. The captions often cite specific German statements or newspaper articles, such as the Cologne Gazette calling Lusitania victims "flippant Americans" (cartoon 17). This technique transforms each cartoon into a documented indictment, blending visual satire with journalistic citation.

Recurring Motifs: U-boats, Hypocrisy, and German-American Relations

Several motifs recur across the excerpts. U-boats appear repeatedly, from "The first great German 'U' Boat Victory" (cartoon 2) to "Under their true flag" (cartoon 88), which describes Germany raising "the black flag of piracy." Another persistent theme is German diplomatic hypocrisy: cartoons 25, 33, and 82 show peace proposals as insincere, with captions noting that Germany prepared for "more ruthless" undersea warfare while talking peace. Rogers also addresses German-American loyalty in cartoon 63, "Those disappointing German-Americans," which states that Junkerdom could not understand why German-born U.S. citizens did not support Germany. This motif reflects contemporary anxieties about divided loyalties.

Structure and Sequence: From Outrage to Resolution

The list of 100 cartoons suggests a chronological or thematic progression. Early cartoons (1–10) focus on the outbreak of war and Belgium's invasion, while later ones (80–100) move toward U.S. involvement. The final excerpt, "Wrathful waiting" (cartoon 100), describes the President and people in "a state of indignation that could not much longer be controlled," ending with the phrase "watchful waiting" becoming "wrathful waiting." This arc implies that the collection builds toward the inevitability of American entry into the war. However, the excerpts are incomplete, so the full sequence and any concluding cartoon remain unknown.

Readers should approach this work as a primary source of American propaganda and editorial art from 1917. The cartoons are best understood alongside the historical events they reference—the Lusitania sinking, the Sussex pledge, and the Zimmermann Telegram—which Rogers assumes his audience knows. The captions often contain direct quotations from German officials, making the collection a useful document for studying how wartime media framed the enemy.

Those hundred cartoons in America’s Black and White Book carry a heavy, tired anger—the kind that doesn’t shout, just points. I found myself turning the pages slowly, missing the human faces behind the propaganda. Later, I sat with Soldiers’ Stories of the War — Reading Companion, and it felt like hearing the same war whisper instead of roar. Two quiet ways of remembering what the headlines once flattened.