The Cartoon History of the Modern World, Part 2: From the Bastille to Baghdad

I first fell in love with Larry Gonick's Cartoon History series back in the late seventies when they were first published in comic book form. Later they were anthologised in book form. As a student and teacher of history I have used them on many occasions with classes and have used them as a first port of call when checking some historical period. Not only is Gonick's work historically interesting, he recreates the past with flair and humour. Any volume of this series is worth dipping into for insight and entertainment. Gonick's historical knowledge is profound.and his passion for his subject permeates every page. His humanist, left of centre perspective resonates with my own and often over the years I have been drawn back to these books as a means of making sense and getting a handle on complex historical events. Gonick is never superficial, he invites his readers to consider history and its meaning. This final volume in a massive historical, artistic and publishing enterprise is a fitting conclusion, full of Gonick's clever illustrations and unique take on history. If you enjoy history then all of Gonick's volumes deserve a place on your bookshelf.

I first read Gonick's original volume of this series - The Cartoon History of the Universe Volume 1 - back in the early 90's as a teenager. Since then I have kept up with each of the new volumes, so it was with both great excitement and a little sadness that I finally cracked open this final volume. This volume does not disappoint. Gonick keeps up the fast paced run through of history that we have come to expect in the books, covering from the 1700's all the way through 9/11 and today. Finally getting up to a century that I know well - the one we were all born in - it was interesting reading his take on events that I actually knew in great detail. There were a few things that I was bummed were left out - though planes start appearing in panels, the beginnings of flight are not covered. While Sputnik is mentioned and ICBMs, the space race is not covered. However, knowing Gonick's work as well as I do, I know this wasn't due to any ignorance or forgetfulness on the author's part - he simply could not put everything in. As I said before, fans can rejoice because this volume is no different than the others. It is more of the same wonderful history and cartoons fans have come to expect.

I first became addicted to the work of Larry Gronick in the early 1970s through "A Cartoon History of the Universe." It was oddly academic - a comic book with a bibliography. This is the last volume of his work that has taken us from the Big Bang to the post 9/11 invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is factual, well researched, and always presented with enough humor to soften the hardest blows his facts deliver. "Un-biased" may not be possible in reportage, but Gronick makes his case from good sources and leaves most conclusions to the reader. I recommend all of the book in his series.

A concise and mostly quite accurate summary of a vast swath of history for younger readers, but also for older ones too.

Great read, love everything that Larry Gonick writes

Larry Gonick's "Cartoon History of the Universe" series are my favorite books, or any media, ever. They work as entertainment because Gonick has a great, irreverent sense of humor and an engaging writing style. They (generally) work as art because Gonick is a top-notch cartoonist. And most crucially, they work as history because Gonick conducts careful research and is able to synthesize the bewildering subject that is world history in a coherent, informative way. As such it's easily the best introduction to the subject and did more than anything else to start my lifelong interest in history. It is thus with a heavy heart that I consider this last volume the weakest in the series. The bitter truth, noticeable in the third volume but readily apparent by the fourth, is that the overall quality steadily declines as the series goes on. Gonick's first book, written in installments back in the '80s, has more youthful vigor, creativity, lush illustrations, detailed explanations, and coherence. These last two volumes, the so-called "Cartoon Histories of the Modern World," are smaller in size and contain fewer pages. Book 1 had 7 volumes (50 pages each); this one has 5. Gonick's style has changed a lot over the years, and frankly, it's just not as good. The smaller pages and panels make for less detail and more cramped, confusing panels (although there are a few cases of wasted space, too). I was nervous years before this that Gonick wouldn't be able to adequately juggle the increasing amount of information that comes with modern history. Book 4 did it decently, but here I think he falters. 5 volumes simply isn't enough to adequately cover all that happened. In general Gonick tries to focus on something in each volume. In the early books, which dealt with ancient civilizations, that is manageable, but here they are more and more scattered with the widening of the scope to the entire world. I take issue with his focus on Einstein in Volume 4, which is a bit too technical for a general history book and not even necessary. World War II is a little rushed too, considering it was the biggest, most complex war in all history. The worst, though, is Volume 5, which recklessly tries (and fails) to condense everything after 1945 into 50 pages. Other reviews have taken issues with this, and they're right. Decolonization is discussed briefly on one page and then dumped. Gonick's coverage of China is usually outstanding (especially in Book 2), but here the tumultuous 20th century is mostly skipped over. He spends a lot of time on Afghanistan and Iraq, probably conflicts that will be remembered as marginal later but were big in the news at the time this was written. At the very end, he admits in a rushed page that he's skipped a lot and tries to summarize everything else. I was heartbroken to read this; it's a pathetic end to a great series. Gonick's politics have always been pretty leftist, and here it's more blatant than before. The petty Bush-whacking from the previous book is less noxious here, but since we're dealing with modern times, the opportunity for controversy and disagreement also increases. For the most part I didn't take umbrage at it, but some readers might be turned off. For instance, he spends a lot of time discussing slavery and its abolition because (he explains in an interview) he wanted to encourage readers to question the economic system and make difficult changes. His general sympathy for the rest of the world and comparative disdain for the West is very evident here, although it's easy to argue that given the ravages of capitalism and imperialism it's justified. Finally, there are a few big errors here as in some of his other books. One I noticed was that he places Jiang Jieshi's kidnapping after the war with Japan instead of before it. Mostly they're just annoying and aren't serious problems. Overall, this review is negative because I felt let down after such a great run. But if you're starting to read from here for some reason, it probably won't seem as bad. As my rating indicates, this is still a great read. Gonick makes most of the subjects he touches understandable and entertaining, and it's still a fine overview. In particular, I liked his overview of the French Revolution (it's this book's requisite historical event-in-focus), which interweaves it smartly with the Haitian Revolution. His discussions of socialism and Afghanistan are also great (even though I complained about the latter). I also loved his choice to focus on Europe's modernization through a Japanese lens, which is probably what I would've done since Japan learned Europe's lessons faster and more successfully than any other nation. Gonick's book still covers many oft-neglected regions of the world and stories in history. I don't have much sympathy for reviewers who whine about x subject not getting discussed just because it's their favorite. That being said, if you compare this with the first two books in the series, the quality is significantly lower. There is less detail, poorer artwork, and honestly less spark and imagination too. I really wish Gonick would've spent more time and either written a few more volumes or another book or two. After all, why should World War II get 6 pages when the Persian Wars and Chu-Han Contention get half a volume each? Why should ancient Greece get 3 volumes when the Soviet Union gets a few pages in total?

Funny book of cartoons that teaches history. Highly recommended!

La serie de historia de Larry Gonick es algo que todo amante de la historia deberia tener en su biblioteca, para revisar cuando alguna parte de la historia universal aparezca oscura e incomprensible. Culta, abarcativa, inteligente y divertida. No se puede pedir mas

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Another nice cartoon book !

I could never read a "real history book". Gonick's style in this (and other similar) book, enables one to get a rapid grasp of the sequence of events and an amusing account of what happened, from an apparently pretty unbiased viewpoint. Anyone then who was really interested in a particular epoch could then buy a "more serious" book, to get more detail. Simply excellent, and great value.