Herblock's State of the Union

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Fair. Herbert Block. 224 pages. Illustrations. DJ has wear, tears, soiling and chips. Inscribed by the author on the fep. Inscription reads For Gordon Roberts with best regards of Herb Block. It is possible that this was inscribed to Gordon Ray Roberts (born 14 June 1950) a Medal of Honor recipient for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty" on 11 July 1969 while an infantryman with the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War. Includes Foreword; Prolitics; The Arms Game; The Secret Snooperstate; Press Section; The Goods Life; Hail to the Office; Welfare State; The Law-and-Order Gang; Foreign Policy Made Easy; Battle of Capitol Hill; the War, and Campaign Flight. A man with a passion for old-fashioned things like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, Herblock keeps an eagle eye on the comings and goings of our elected, appointed (and sometimes self anointed) leaders. And what he sees he records. So let the word go forth to friend and foe alike. Here is a new books by Herblock. State of the Union is Herblock's sixth book. The others five earlier ones are The Herblock Book; Herblock's Here and Now; Herblock's Special for Today, Straight Herblock, & The Herblock Gallery. Herbert Lawrence Block, commonly known as Herblock (October 13, 1909 - October 7, 2001), was an American editorial cartoonist and author best known for his commentaries on national domestic and foreign policy. During the course of a career stretching into nine decades, he won three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning (1942, 1954, 1979), shared a fourth Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for Public Service on Watergate, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1994), the National Cartoonist Society Editorial Cartoon Award in 1957 and 1960, the Reuben Award in 1956, the Gold Key Award (the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame) in 1979, and numerous other honors. Block moved to Cleveland in 1933 to become the staff cartoonist for Newspaper Enterprise Association, which distributed his cartoons nationally. He won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1942, then spent two years in the Army doing cartoons and press releases. Upon discharge Block became chief editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post, where he worked until his death 55 years later. Block's cartoons were syndicated to newspapers around the world by Creators Syndicate from 1987 until his death in 2001. Derived from a New York Times review: If Herblock had never drawn so much as a rough sketch, his incisive thought and pungent prose would have established him as a leading commentator. As it is, his reputation as a great political cartoonist overshadows his writing. His written work shows the same two qualities that distinguish his drawing. There is the ability to seize upon the central issue in a situation and present it in clean, simple lines with stunning force. At the same time, there is the playfulness of a naturally witty mind which has fun with details and on the boundaries of a subject without cluttering up the main point. A cartoon shows a bureaucrat swamped by masses of classified documents. One bundle reads, "Eyes Only." The next bundle reads, "One Eye Only." In his writing, this playfulness shows itself in neat turns of phrase and brief parodies. The words can be as devastating as the drawings. "Herblock's State of the Union," is his report on the Nixon Administration with text illustrated by his own cartoons. Herblock reports that the news from Washington is very bad. In a dozen lively chapters, he recounts major themes in the history of this Administration, including its devotion to a big arms budget, its subversion of traditional liberties ("The Secret Snooperstate"), its peculiar version of "law and order," and its management of foreign affairs. His essay on the Vietnam war is a model of restrained and passionate eloquence. Two of his most effective essays are "PRolitics" or how Mr. Nixon has substituted public relations techniques for the substance of Government and "Hail to the Office" or how Mr. Nixon has exploited the prestige of the Presidency. dozen lively chapters, he recounts major themes in the history of this Administration, including its devotion to a big arms budget, its subversion of traditional liberties ("The Secret Snooperstate"), its peculiar version of "law and order," and its management of foreign affairs. Herblock has not written the most subtle or ingenious analysis of the Nixon phenomenon. He makes no pretense to inside information. He has simply produced the most entertaining political book of the season and the truest. A hundred years from now he will be read and his cartoons admired by everyone trying to understand these strange times.