John Adler – författare

The legendary Boss Tweed effectively controlled New York City from after the Civil War until his downfall in November 1871. A huge man, he and his Ring of Thieves appeared to be invincible as they stole an estimated $2 billion in today's dollars. In addition to the New York city and state governments, the Tweed Ring controlled the press except for Harper's Weekly. Short and slight Thomas Nast was the most dominant American political cartoonist of all time; using his pen as his sling in Harper's Weekly, he attacked Tweed almost single-handily before The New-York Times joined the battle in 1870. Where ""Doomed by Cartoon"" differs from previous books about Boss Tweed is its focus on looking at circumstances and events as Thomas Nast visualized them in his 160-plus cartoons, almost like a serialized but intermittent comic book covering 1866 through 1978. It has been organized to tell the Nast vs. Tweed story so that readers with an interest in politics history and/or cartoons will enjoy.

The timely, true story of Thomas Nast, the granddaddy of political satire who destroyed a corrupt regime in 19th century New York City—with cartoons.   He was an unethical, bullying, and narcissistic politician; a blow-hard real estate magnate and notorious swindler; a master manipulator who thrived off voter fraud, graft, and the collusion of his right-hand sycophants. This is the 1870s.   The legendary William “Boss” Tweed, senator and third-largest landowner in New York City, is on a roll. He and his thieving minions have already duped the city out of an estimated two-billion dollars. It wasn’t going to be easy exposing him. He controlled the press—except for the magazine, Harper’s Weekly. And Harper’s had an invaluable weapon against the humorless and seemingly invincible Tweed: Thomas Nast, an influential political cartoonist who, day by day, brought Tweed’s corruption to light. With pen and ink, and a savage and righteous wink, Thomas Nast was determined to topple an empire.   Told through Nast’s scathing 160-plus serialized cartoons, the remarkable and unbelievable true story of Nast vs. Tweed was not only unprecedented for its day, but it set the tone for the battle between the freedom of the press and political malfeasance that resonates well into the twenty-first century.