# Twentieth-century political cartoons reuse the Wolf and the Lamb as war and class copy

Date: 1914

## The fact

During the First World War and later labour conflicts, newspapers reused ‘wolf and lamb’ Aesopic captions to name aggression or to smear opponents. The dated public instrument is that cartoon practice as library-held papers.

## Context

A fable about power can clarify injustice and can flatten a war into a nursery caption. Polarisation is the stored path.

[Aesop](/people/aesop) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

An official or archival page and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: Library of Congress — Aesop’s fables (early printed / illustrated copies) (https://www.loc.gov/item/2021663235/; Library of Congress).

## Significance

A caption is not a treaty. Aesop did not draw 1914.

A caption is not a treaty. Aesop did not draw 1914.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Aesop: https://factrail.ai/people/aesop

## Drivers

- Political Polarization: https://factrail.ai/drivers/political-polarization

## Sources

- https://www.loc.gov/item/2021663235/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aesop

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/ae-political-cartoon-wolf-lamb