If I Ran the Circus is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, published in 1956 by Random House. Like The Cat in the Hat, or the more political Yertle the Turtle, If I Ran the Circus develops a theme of cumulative fantasy leading to excess. The overt social commentary found in the Sneetches and the Zax demonstrates that Dr. Seuss was fascinated by the errors and excesses to which humans are prone, and If I Ran the Circus also examines this interest, though more subtly and comically, given its earlier genesis.