The political cartoon “School Begins” first appeared in Puck, a popular satirical magazine, on January 25, 1899. It depicts a typical American classroom of the time, complete with instructor (in the person of Uncle Sam, the iconic representation of Yankee Americanism) and students—especially the four students in the “new class” representing colonies seized during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The cartoon is particularly noteworthy because of its vivid depiction of U.S. imperialism in the period of the Philippine-American War that erupted the following month. It also clearly presents the racial—and racist—thinking that underlay the American claim to the Philippines.