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Historical Investigation

To what extent did David Low's cartoons accurately re-

flect public opinion in Britain in the years before World

War II?

Total word count: 2180

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Contents Page

Section 1: Identification and evaluation of sources Page 3

Section 2: Investigation Page 5

Section 3: Reflection Page 11

Bibliography Page 13

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A. Identification and Evaluation of sources

The question of this investigation is: “To what extent did David Low's cartoons accurately reflect

public opinion in Britain in the years before World War II?”

While analyzing cartoons students may erroneously consider these cartoons the acid test of the

public opinion. A case in point here is a set of political cartoons by D. Low in the years before

WWII. Within my research I compared and contrasted the messages of D. Low’s cartoons and the

public opinion, with the public opinion defined as the opinion expressed by means of elections

and opinion polls.

Sources of particular relevance are R.A.C. Parker’s “Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Pol-

icy and the Coming of the Second World War”, which shed light on the British political opinion

of those times, and David Low’s book “Years of wrath: A Cartoon History: 1931-1945”, which

contains a selection of cartoons with author’s analysis that I used with my investigation.

Source1

The origin of the source is from the book “Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the

Coming of the Second World War” by R.A.C. Parker. This book has important values for this

investigation as it was written by distinguished British historian and its purpose is to offer new

perspectives on Neville Chamberlain, the British decision-maker of the pre-war times. Its great-

est value is that the source provides statistics in relation to the public opinion before the WWII.

However, this source’s scope can be limited as it was written in 1993, long after the WWII took

place. Moreover, one of the source’s limitation is public poll bias – the tendency of public polls

to make the questions preconceived. In addition, public polling did not occur every year which

was crucial for my research as I compared the results of the polls and the message of the cartoons

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of particular years. The fact that they date back to different years could put into question the ac-

curacy of the research.

All in all, although the source is limited in some ways, it is of a great value for my research.

Source 2

Another particularly valuable source is Low’s book “Years of wrath: A Cartoon History: 1931-

1945”. The origin presents its greatest value as it David Low eye-witnessed the events leading to

WWII. The purpose of this source is to educate people about the conditions of the country in

hard times and show the public resentment. The content is valuable as D.Law accompanies his

cartoons with explicit comments to make his message his message crystal clear.

However, the origin may also present some limitations as the format of cartoons seems superfi-

cial in comparison with text document. That is to say that the interpretation of a cartoon is much

higher than that of a text document, as the perception of pictures differs. Moreover, David Low

was a part of opposition which got into the habit of criticizing the government. It means that he

could have reflected his personal attitude instead of being objective.

Concluding, this source’s more critical assessment is extremely valuable to my investigation.

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SECTION 2: INVESTIGATION

In my investigation, I will briefly discuss the data and statistics taken from books and then pre-

sent it in comparison with David Low’s provocative cartoons to understand, whether cartoons

always reflect the public opinion. The main reason why I decided to attract attention to the pe-

riod from 1936 to 1939 is that this particular period consists of short-term event causes that led

to WWII. This analysis will provide the base for understanding the public opinion in one of the

most unstable times in the British history.

First, I would like to identify and challenge the term “public opinion” that refers directly to my

exploration. Basically, public opinion is a term that presents the common opinion of the majority

of people. However, public opinion is a contradictory concept. Thus, historians assess it from

very different perspectives. One opinion states that individual opinion matters more, so public

opinion should be analyzed through weighting opinions of the majority. An opposite view sup-

ports the idea that public opinion is formed by small influential groups of people - political or

media establishment. But, through analyzing different sources it is possible to balance the limita-

tions, which is one of the objectives of the investigation.

The question is why the format of a cartoon is interesting and to what extent its specific features

help to reflect accurately the public opinion about the Appeasement policy and an upcoming war.

Cartoons often provided an insight into the public opinion at the time period they were pub-

lished. Contemporaries would have been expected to recognize the characters, the events, jokes

and satire in the cartoons and therefore the cartoon provides a window to the past. Besides, be-

fore the development of accurate opinion polls, cartoons could represent the public opinion. But

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cartoons also have the disadvantage of distorting historical events. They are often politically mo-

tivated and not objectively presented. D. Low is recognized as one of the greatest cartoonists, but

there is a debatable aspect that calls the accuracy of his representations into a great question.

I have chosen 2 cartoons which are mostly concentrated on the criticism of the Appeasement

policy and the actions of the British Prime Minister just before the war had been started, as well

as on the very beginning of the war. I will make a parallel analysis of these cartoons, in compari-

son with the statistics on public opinion found

Case 1: Chamberlain and Appeasement

The first case I dealt with was the response of D. Law and the British population to the Ap-

peasement policy and in particular to the reoccupation of Rhineland in 1936. As the Ver-

sailles treaty said, the Rhineland was to be a demilitarized area. In 1936, Hitler decided to

send the German troops to the area ignoring the protests of France and other countries.

As we can see from the cartoon of D. Law here below dated 8th July 1936, it is evident that

the cartoonist is rather critical of the British and other European politicians who did little to stop

Hitler.

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David Low, "Stepping Stones to Glory", Evening Standard (8th July, 1936)

The cartoon depicts a group of politicians curving their spines with Hitler on them who looks

free to achieve whatever he wants. Hitler aims to achieve his main goal walking along a carpet

laid across the backs of the ‘spineless leaders of democracy’. This is how D. Low shows the inef-

ficacy of the Appeasement policy. Being afraid of the possible German invasion, the British gov-

ernment made concessions towards Hitler. The message is further supported by the caption and

the comments of the cartoonist. “German troops had re-occupied the Rhineland in early

March…Hitler ordered to move into the Rhineland at the moment when the French were making

one of their periodic changes to the government…The British had not encouraged the French to

take a strong stand.”1

1David Low, Years of Wrath (1946), Simon and Schuster, p. 48

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Opinion polls

When it comes to opinion polls, however, we find out that Britains did not share the perspective

of D. Law on the Rhineland and Appeasement in general. Thus, for instance, the results the opin-

ion poll indicated that the majority of the nation favored Neville Chamberlain and what was later

to be called Appeasement. The question of the poll asked in February 1939 proposed several op-

tions of the views of Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement.2 About 28% of the respondents

thought that the policy will ultimately lead to a lasting peace in Europe, while the majority of

people (46%) argued that it will keep the country out of war until it has time to rearm. Despite

the opinion of D.Low, the answer that the policy is bringing war nearer by whetting the appetite

of the dictators was preferred by the minority of people (26%). 3

The results are further supported by other sources which suggest N. Chamberlain was considered

to bring “peace in our time” 4 together with the 1938 Munich Agreement.

Overall, the analysis shows that the cartoon of D. Law was not representative of the public opin-

ion on the Appeasement policy. In this way, the format of the cartoon came out to be unrepre-

sentative and biased by the political views of the author.

2 https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/causes-of-ww2/public-opinion-and-appeasement-in-1938/

3 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/
4 R.A.C. Parker’s “Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War”

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Case 2: Churchill and the early WWII

The second case I dealt with was the very beginning of the WWII, September 1939 when

Winston Churchill eventually became a prime minister. His government included Clement

Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison, Leo Amery, Neville Chamberlain, Arthur Green-

wood, Lord Halifax, Duff Cooper and Anthony Eden.5

D. Low was in favor of the new prime minister and responded with the cartoon, All Behind You,

Winston. It shows the members of the coalition government walking behind their leader -

Churchill. The long queue is an allusion to the massive support of the people to the new prime

minister.

David Low, All Behind You, Winston (20th September, 1939)

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www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/cabinet-gov/winston-churchill-1940.htm

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David Low later wrote about the background to his work: "… the next day Winston Churchill

became Prime Minister and formed a National Government, retaining Chamberlain and Hali-

fax…” The whole country was inspired with new energy and confidence.6 “Mr.Churchill’s

“blood, sweat and tears” speech…railed the whole country behind him.”

Public opinion

In this case, the official evidence for the public opinion coincides with a perspective of the car-

toonist. The by-election, which was performed a month after September 1938, was centered al-

most entirely around Appeasement. There were two candidates - Quintin Hogg, a Conservative

and strong supporter of Neville Chamberlain's National Government, and A.D. Lindsay, the op-

ponent of appeasement. The Daily Mail commented that "Oxford crystallized the true sentiments

of the British people"7. That is why the 1938 election was a significant indicator of public opin-

ion on Chamberlain's foreign policy.8 The results showed that the majority of people was in fa-

vor of Hogg, the representative of the National Government (15.797), while only 12.363 favored

Lindsay.

Yet, the positive attitude of a caricaturist towards Winston Churchill is absolutely corroborated

by the data on public opinion. However, the results of the elections strongly confirm that public

opinion is a controversial notion as the statistics may differ according to the sample space, the

correctness of the question of the poll and political propaganda.

6 David Low, Years of Wrath (1946), Simon and Schuster, p. 53

7 Daily Mail, 28 October 1938

8 https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/education/churchill-era/exercises/appeasement/oxford-election-1938/

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Conclusion

In conclusion, both studies that I referred to calls the reliability of Low’s cartoons into question.

To some extent, the cartoons of David Low reflected the opinion of British people accurately,

but the contradictions emerge because of the human element, political preferences and prejudices

of the author. Cartoons and polls may generally agree, but not always. All things considered, re-

flection of the public opinion through cartoons of 1930-s cannot be fully representative. There-

fore, there is a need for it to work in conjunction with other sources: statistics, research papers

and books to correspond to the public opinion.

Section C. Reflection

Throughout my investigation I faced some technical challenges which I will try to over-

come in the future. Thus, for instance, the first Case analyzed the cartoon and the opinion poll

which dated to different years, 1936 and 1939 respectively. What is more, whereas the first cartoon

focused on the Rhineland case (1936), the first opinion poll dealt with the Appeasement policy

(1936-1939) i.e. with a set of events including not only the Rhineland case, but also the Anschluss

of Austria in 1938, and the Munich agreement in 1938. Unfortunately, my personal experience

demonstrated that researchers may compromise the accuracy of the outcome when they fail to find

information that fits the purpose of the investigation like a glove.

I also came across challenges which are inherent to the nature of historical investigation.

Thus, I had to compare “uncomparable” things i.e. cartoons, which may be misinterpreted, and

opinion polls, which may be not representative of the public opinion for a number of reasons like

misguiding questions and inaccurate sampling. Thus, historians are doomed to study sources which

may be biased or misinterpreted. Consequently, the results could be hardly objective and there is

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often room for insinuations. In spite of this fallacy in my research, I believe it is a perpetual chal-

lenge of the historian to deal with a range of biased sources to filter them down and identify rela-

tively reliable data. The fact that different historians may come to different conclusions here does

not put into question the historical research but constitute a fascinating challenge.

Moreover, my investigation made me conceive of whether public opinion is equal to the

opinion of everybody in the country? Can we hold the whole British nation accountable for the

decisions of the government when only part of the nation supported these decisions? So, at the end

of the day, can we blame the whole British population for the mistakes in the Appeasement policy

as they came out to support it? The problem is that even if this government is democratically

elected, it got the credit of confidence from the majority, but not from the total population. Through

my investigation, I didn’t come to any exact answers to the question above, but the divergence of

the facts about public opinion itself inspired me to investigate the ambiguity of this term in my

future historical researches.

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References

1. Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965: The River War (1902 edition)

2. David Low, Years of wrath: A Cartoon History: 1931-1945 (1st edition 1946)
3. R.A.C Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second
World War (October 7, 1993)
4. Daniel Hucker, Public Opinion and the End of Appeasement in Britain and France (
Routledge, 2011)
5. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/
6. ww.nationalarchives.gov.uk, 10.09.18
7. Daily Mail 28 October 1938
8. Picture Post, 5 November 1938
9. http://www.bbc.co.uk, 10.09.18

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