Inflation

August 28, 1936

Meanwhile, Stalin, Lenin's successor as leader of Soviet Russia, showed that, by monopoly of political power and by successive "purges" of his opponents, he had noted the methods of his Fascist and Nazi rivals.

Inflation is a funny thing, sometimes it gets us all worked up even when it's only a few percentage points and yet yesterday I bought this book at an antiques fair for a price which was 20,000% of the original cover price of sixpence and I couldn't be happier. Still 20,000% over 72 years isn't excessive (the book was first published in 1940).

This is a collection of cartoons by David Low depicting the political events in Europe from the signing of the Versailles Treaty to the outbreak of the Second World War. Each cartoon is incisive and thoroughly cutting to the main objects of David Low's satire (mainly Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin...but others are not immune). It's no wonder that after the war David Low's name was discovered on the Sonderfahndungsliste G.B. ('The Black Book')!

If you would like to see some more of his work from this period you can see some here.