Product Description

The Cartoon History of the Modern World is a wickedly funny take on modern history. It is essentially a complete and up–to–date course in college level Modern World History, but presented as a graphic novel. In an engaging and humorous graphic style, Larry Gonick covers the history, personalities and big topics that have shaped our universe over the past five centuries, including the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the evolution of political, social, economic, and scientific thought, Communism, Fascism, Nazism, the Cold War, Globalization––and much more.

Volume I of the Cartoon History of the Modern World picks up from Gonick's award winning Cartoon History of the Universe Series. That series began with the Big Bang and ended with Christopher Columbus sailing for the New World. This book starts off with peoples that Columbus "discovered" and ends with the U.S. Revolution.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9215 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Released on: 2006-12-26
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Since 1971 Gonick has been writing and drawing his highly entertaining Cartoon Guides, popularizing an extraordinary array of subjects, including genetics, physics, and even sex. Picking up where his most celebrated work, the multivolume Cartoon History of the Universe, left off, Gonick has now undertaken to cover the modern world. Though Europe is his focus, Gonick commendably devotes considerable attention and empathy to the native peoples of India and the Americas. He irreverently undercuts commonly accepted historical myths: for example, Gonick persuasively and humorously depicts Columbus as utterly hapless in dealing with other people, whether native Americans or his own crew. He also presents serious themes, tracing a history of religious intolerance and amoral quests for power and wealth, repeatedly resulting in mass slaughters. Gonick points to visionaries who saw beyond the prejudices of their times, focusing particularly on the Dutch Republic as a forerunner of American liberty. Gonick usually draws his figures in appealingly cartoony style, but will surprise readers with his occasional ventures into realism. Readers will be impressed by the scope of Gonick's research, covering subjects from Shakespeare, Galileo and Machiavelli to the Reformation and the American Revolution. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up—An award-winning author presents a hilarious and informative survey of modern history. The book actually begins with an impressive 15-page distillation of pre-Columbian America; and while Europe and North America receive most of the attention, Gonick does include at least some highlights from other parts of the world. Covering such topics as the Protestant Reformation, the British defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Copernican model of the universe, and the American Revolution, he writes and draws with considerable wit and authority, and is obviously well versed in his subject. A good example of his cleverness appears at the book's outset, where he summarizes our knowledge of the first Americans who "arrived 12-, 15-, or 30,000 years ago, by land or by sea, from Siberia or somewhere else. They killed all the mastodons, ground sloths, and saber-toothed tigers, or else the big animals died of climate change." In the accompanying drawing, a man says to a serpent, "That much is almost certain." It is even more certain that most readers will enjoy this fun-filled trek through time.—Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
His long comic-book history of everything having reached the era of European exploration, renaissance, and reformation, Gonick changes the object of the titular preposition from the Universe to the Modern World No shift in comprehensiveness, however. Despite primary focus on Western Europe, worldwide coverage continues, and the rest of the universe is noted by attending to developments in science. This book begins, gratifyingly for many readers, with pre-Columbian American history, which is treated no differently than European history. That is to say, the most salient features are emphasized, and the most important figures are depicted, accompanied in every panel by ironic/sarcastic comments by representative commoners. Those bon mots just may be sharper and slyer than ever. For instance, in one panel an underling addresses the pope as "sire," which rings all wrong until Gonick points out the peculiarities of the pontiff in question, Alexander VI, whose many peccadilloes included several illegitimate children. Gonick's Harvey Kurtzman-meets-Hank Ketcham draftsmanship guarantees forward momentum even when the words are about, say, the ideas of John Locke. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Great, but ...
Of course all the Cartoon histories are really great, illuminating, and educational, but on this one, I kept being irritated by with it references to today's events - references that a in a few years will be incomprehensible. A historian should write for the ages.

The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution
Great for a student who just can't get into the dry text book in history class. Factual, funny and in a cartoon format. Student's who find that they have no interest in history, may decide differently when they read this.

Shallow and snarky
First of all, I was a big fan of the first 3 books. But this one was no where near as good. Here are some of my complaints.

He comes off as more forgiving of the Aztec empire (human sacrifice, slavery and all) than the Spaniards (slavery, sans human sacrifice). A little more examination into the changes in the native populations day-to-day life would have been appreciated.

He seems to dismiss the theory that germs were the dominant factor in allowing Europeans to conquer the Americas. While he does touch on disease in a few instances, his only direct approach is to portray this notion as a way to assuage white guilt. But this was, almost certainly, the reason why Europeans were able to conquer the Americas and not Africa or Asia.

He perpetuates the myth that the croissant was invented to commemorate the victory of the Siege of Vienna. In fact, the myth originally claimed that it was invented for the siege of Budapest, and this was most likely invented as well. The first time that this story is told is in 1938, far too long after the fact to be accepted as fact.

The treatment of slavery and the U.S. constitution is shallow. There were real conflicts here that could have been given better treatment. I'd rather that he'd saved this for another volume than skim over it.

The religious conflicts in Europe were much more complex, and deserved more in-depth treatment. Too often, Gonick makes snarky comments about the participants, but there were real fears, real ambitions, etc. that motivated these conflicts.

In fact, too often, just like his comparison of Aztecs to Spaniards, he seems willing to accentuate European sins over non-European sins. One can't help wondering what types of biases he harbors when addressing these comparisons. Was life in Peru really better under the native lords than under the Spaniards? Under what measurements?

As well, the Ottomans are never addressed directly, even though they were an important world power. And did the Ottomans work in the African slave trade (why yes, they did)? How did this effect Africa, Turkey, etc.?

Some of this may be alleviated in future volumes, but this volume by itself is weaker than previous ones.