Adult Satire. Devolution of civilization. Commentary on the complexity of society, yearning for a simpler life. Line-art drawing with 1-4 lines of text below on each page. Title: The World As/ Way It Was? Read around 1970-1971.

[Andy]

Genre: Satire
Year: I believe it would have been published in the 1960s
Year: I found it and read it on my parent's bookshelves in around 1970-71

I think the title was "The world as it was", or "The way it was", or "The world the way it was", or something like that (but my memory of the title is iffy)

Each page of the book contained a single line-art drawing, of a style you might find of a political cartoonist, or in the New Yorker. Under each picture was 1 to 4 lines of narrative text (like a caption for the picture, but the pages, in sequence, told a story).

The book was a social commentary/satire on the complexity of civilization/social interaction, and our yearning for a simpler life.

The book was an easy one-sit read.

The book opened with a modern society (cities, cars, lots of people milling about a metropolis), and lampooned modern civilization patterns, and the separation of religious groups (one picture I recall showed two churches kitty-corner from each other at the same intersection, with streams of members in line to enter each church, sneering at the other church's members as they passed each other, and turning to a big proud smug smile as they entered their own church).

Over the course of the book, the artist/author picked apart and set aside features of modern society, so that by the last page, the humans were standing on a grassy hilltop, holding hands, naked Adam-and-Eve-like.

[Kris]

Andy, are the illustrations in black-and-white? Do they remind you of another illustrator or political cartoonist?

Is the author American or British?

I added some details to the header/topic title. You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, click the "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)

[Andy]

Kris, thanks so much for helping make my post better. I've edited my original post to add some additional information, per your questions.

[Jen]

I was able to figure it out...
It’s in the book Feiffer’s Children and is the Story Munro.

What do I do with this thread now that I figured it out?

[Jen]

Sorry, wrong thread.

[Daisy]

Jules Feiffer is not a ridiculous suggestion for this thread either! He's a cartoonist and a satirist.

[Andy]

Daisy wrote: "Jules Feiffer is not a ridiculous suggestion for this thread either! He's a cartoonist and a satirist."
Interesting guess. I checked out some of his other work in Google and the drawing style is not what I remember.

You don't know how I've been Googling and Googling, trying to find an art style that is close to what I remember.