{"id":172,"date":"2004-10-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-10-26T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/politicaldrseuss\/"},"modified":"2022-03-30T16:53:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T23:53:39","slug":"politicaldrseuss","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/politicaldrseuss\/","title":{"rendered":"The Political Dr. Seuss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of Theodor Geisel\u2019s superior officers during World War II described him in an evaluation as a \u201cpersonable zealot.\u201d An oxymoron? Perhaps. But it also provides a fitting description of the man who was better known as Dr. Seuss, the best-selling children\u2019s author of all time. The documentary, <em>The Political Dr. Seuss<\/em>, traces the evolution of Geisel\u2019s art and political philosophy and shows how he deftly combined his delightful, otherworldly creations with moral parables and progressive ideas.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Both an idealist and a curmudgeon, Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904\u201391) spent much of his life trying to improve a society he knew was inherently flawed. He had a keen eye for hypocrites, bullies and demagogues, and ridiculed them whenever he got the chance. He was a man of strong opinions and deep convictions, though shy and unassuming in demeanor. Among friends he was quite charming, and was famous for his practical jokes. And yet he guarded his privacy dearly, and seldom made public appearances. He was an internationally renowned children\u2019s author, though he never had children of his own, and once admitted that &#8220;in mass, they terrify me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dreamer or cynic? Grandfather or grinch? It seems that Dr. Seuss was all of these things and more, a complex, talented and passionate man who struggled to remain hopeful in spite of the &#8220;dissemination of stupidity&#8221; he saw all around him. Above all, Dr. Seuss and his work were intrinsically political. A self-proclaimed master of &#8220;logical insanity,&#8221; the author of such fanciful tales as<i>Green Eggs and Ham<\/i> and <i>The Cat in the Hat<\/i> devoted much of his considerable talent and influence to advocating political and social change. From condemning isolationism and attacking anti-Semitism to his later works for literacy, the environment, and against the arms race, Dr. Seuss\u2019s most popular works reflect his passion for fairness, democracy and tolerance.<\/p>\n<p>But this is a side of Dr. Seuss\u2019s work that is rarely discussed. Most Americans don\u2019t know, for example, that during World War II he drew editorial cartoons for the left-wing New York newspaper <i>PM<\/i>, or that he made army propaganda films with Frank Capra. Many readers didn\u2019t know that <i>The Sneetches<\/i> was inspired by Seuss\u2019s opposition to anti-Semitism, that <i>Horton Hears a Who!<\/i> was a political statement about democracy and isolationism, or that <i>The Lorax<\/i> and <i>The Butter Battle Book<\/i> were parables about the environment and the arms race. Dr. Seuss\u2019s true genius may lie in the fact that all of this was done with such humor and finesse, that few realized he was being political at all.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Political Dr. Seuss<\/em> traces Theodor Geisel\u2019s life from his boyhood in Springfield, Massachusetts through his final days living atop Mt. Soledad in La Jolla, California. The film explores his little-known World War II era cartoons, his educational and propaganda film work\u2014including the \u201cPrivate Snafu\u201d films he made with Chuck Jones\u2014and <i>Design for Death<\/i>, his Academy Award-winning documentary on Japan, which is seen here for the first time since its original theatrical release in 1947. In-depth interviews with his widow Audrey, his biographers Judith and Neil Morgan (<i>Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel<\/i>) and Richard H. Minear (<i>Dr. Seuss Goes to War<\/i>), his long-time Random House publisher Robert Bernstein and editor Michael Frith, and historian Michael Kazin\u2014not to mention Geisel&#8217;s own words through voice-overs\u2014bring the man to life. <em>The Political Dr. Seuss<\/em> is not only an intriguing portrait of Theodor Geisel but also a fascinating lens through which to view the complex political and social history of the 20th century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This film explores a little-known side of Dr. Seuss (1904-1991) and his works: How many of his readers know that <i>Yertle the Turtle<\/i> was modeled on Hitler, or that <i>Horton Hears a Who<\/i> is a parable about postwar Japan?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1216],"class_list":["post-172","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-arts-and-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Political Dr. Seuss | Theodore Geisel&#039;s Philosophy | Independent Lens | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Political Dr. Seuss traces the evolution of Geisel\u2019s art and political philosophy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/politicaldrseuss\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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