This collection investigates the evolution of American political and social consciousness through the lens of satirical illustration from the 1950s to the 1980s. Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and social critic, utilizes his extensive archive of work published in The Village Voice to document the shifting anxieties of the American public. The book presents a chronological framework that maps the transition from the conformist pressures of the Eisenhower era through the turbulent social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, concluding with the political shifts of the Reagan administration.

Critics and historians frequently cite this work as a primary visual record of the American zeitgeist during the Cold War and post-Vietnam era. Scholars note that the text serves as both an artistic retrospective and a valuable sociological document for understanding the development of modern political satire.