Useful or Useless?

Historians use historical sources in different ways to find evidence about the past. In some cases facts can be read straight out of a source. For other sources it is necessary to do some careful thinking before an idea can be extracted from the source. Cartoons need to be thought about carefully. We cannot take what we see in a cartoon at face value.

We know that cartoons use exaggeration. For example, they can make someone seem to be stronger or weaker than they actually are. Because of this they are unreliable. Cartoons are also biased. They give a one-sided view of events or people. Cartoons contain opinions (a point of view). They give us the cartoonist's opinion of a person or situation. They are not facts (something we can prove). Historians must be able to tell the difference between fact and opinion. In order to prove how accurate a cartoon is, you need to compare its view with the actual facts.

'Cartoon produced by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War showing Hitler sick with fear at the size and might of the British Navy.'

However, just because cartoons are biased and based on opinions does not mean they should be ignored as sources. In fact, this is why they are so valuable, as they can tell us about the attitudes of certain groups of people in the past. Some cartoons can sum up quite accurately what was happening at the time from different viewpoints. Some are evidence of attempts to influence people.