The Fate of Humor in a Time of Civil and Cold War: <cite>Vanity Fair</cite> and Race Analyzes the treatment of race and humor in <cite>Vanity Fair</cite>, a popular antebellum periodical that a number of the Pfaff's bohemians contributed to. Specifically, considers the irony that, "while the Bohemians associated with <cite>Vanity Fair</cite> gladly enlisted in the battle to free humanity from the shackles of social repression" they did not throw their support behind the abolitionist effort (31). Instead, the Civil War-era <cite>Vanity Fair</cite> was marked by pronounced racism towards African Americans, which it expressed through a variety of attempts at humor.