Rating: 
Summary: Please Hurry With Volume Three!
Review: As he has always done, Gonick has given us a brilliant, entertaining, even-handed, sensitive and just downright FUN look at the universe and our little part in its play. Hurry, Larry, and get V3 in our hands! It's been four years of waiting!
Rating:
Summary: Religion, politics, sex and humour
Review: As with Larry Gonick's other guides he manages to pull off the trick of being both amusing and edifying. He also has the artistic flare for painting history in broad yet revealing brush strokes.
The second instalment of his history of the Universe covers ancient India, China's early years and Rome from its mythical founding to its very real collapse.
Gonick is not afraid to offend. His depictions of Jesus, Krisna, Buddha and Confucius are all less than entirely flattering. While he is not the sort to be disrespectful through ignorance, Gonick will not fail to pick out the more obvious weaknesses of any institution or historical figure he comes across. He even takes a swipe at one of Afrocentrisms unjustified claims. Although in the end he pays due recognition to the achievements of each of these figures it is possibly best to avoid this book if you are the sort to yell "Blasphemy!".
Anybody else who has a sense of humour and an interest in history should get their hands on this book immediately.
Rating:
Summary: The bloody history of early China and early Europe
Review: Even though this is a collection of cartoons and the text in the dialog balloons is generally meant to be frivolous, it is possible to learn a lot of history from the book. Unlike so many history books that concentrate on Western Europe and derivatives, this one deals extensively with India and China. Volume 8 deals with the early history of India and how the great religions that we associate with India arose. From it, you also learn the origins of the great early works of Indian civilization such as Bhagavad Gita.
The origins of the ancient Chinese civilization are covered in volumes 9 and 10. Most of the points deal with the battles for supremacy and feature court intrigue, deception and a lot of killing. We tend to think of massive deaths in war as being a modern invention, but that is a misconception. Well before the year 0, the army of Chin was ambushed and massacred, over 200,000 men were killed in one day.
Chapter 11 begins with the last days of Alexander the Great. It correctly points out that while Alexander was married to a Persian, that union was largely political. The great love of Alexander's life was Hephaestion, his male grand vizier. When Hephaestion died, Alexander grieved over the body for two days. The next sections chronicle the origin and rise of Rome as a great power. Once again, it is largely a tale of murder, intrigue and war. As the power of Rome grew, it was no longer possible to maintain the republican form of government. At first the supreme position was called the consulship, where the holder was powerful, but not yet a dictator. All this changed when Julius Caesar marched off to conquer Gaul and then returned to march on Rome. This began several decades of near constant warfare in the Empire, some of which was civil.
The numbers of people that were killed in these wars are amazing to consider. Some history books estimate that Julius Caesar killed over a million while in Gaul. Descriptions of Western history describe the carnage of World Wars I and II as unprecedented in human history. In fact, the concept of total war with deaths numbered in the hundreds of thousands or millions is an old theme of history. The wars that took place between the Europeans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were comparatively limited in consequence.
After a few pages, the discerning reader will understand that the text in the captions is generally designed to impart the history while the balloon dialog is reserved for the humor. I enjoyed this book immensely, learning many things about Chinese history. I also learned some additional details about western history. If there is a theme to the history presented here, it is how many people were killed in acts of the powerful fighting for control. We tend to think of the twentieth century as being the bloodiest on record. That is probably not the case. Given the carnage that occurred in China and the Mediterranean even before the birth of Christ, there might be centuries before the A. D. label that were bloodier. That fact is disturbing, whether learned by text or by cartoon.
Rating:
Summary: Aw c'mon
Review: Gonick is educating thousands. Strangely, but doing it nonetheless.
Rating:
Summary: A quick, fun, and thorough review of history
Review: Gonick is not attempting to be the overall scholar that knows all and sees all about history. That is not the point of his "Cartoon History of the Universe" books. This probably is not the best way to read history, but it is a great introduction to that subject.In Volume II he begins with the defeat of Alexander the Great in India, which never mentions his presence in any of their historical documentation of the time, and ends with the beginning of the "Dark Ages" and the appearance of visitors in a "surprising" direction between Europe and China. None of this is a mystery, of course, it can be found in your history books, but most of it is a mystery to lay people because history books are inaccessible to most, and too dense in their materials. And that is the point of the Gonick books: to give the average,on the street person a grasp of some sort of the history of the world. In the days where we seem to be trying to repeat some of history's mistakes (or maybe rectify them) this is a good way to find out just what those events were.
Rating:
Summary: A quick, fun, and thorough review of history
Review: Gonick is not attempting to be the overall scholar that knows all and sees all about history. That is not the point of his "Cartoon History of the Universe" books. This probably is not the best way to read history, but it is a great introduction to that subject. In Volume II he begins with the defeat of Alexander the Great in India, which never mentions his presence in any of their historical documentation of the time, and ends with the beginning of the "Dark Ages" and the appearance of visitors in a "surprising" direction between Europe and China. None of this is a mystery, of course, it can be found in your history books, but most of it is a mystery to lay people because history books are inaccessible to most, and too dense in their materials. And that is the point of the Gonick books: to give the average,on the street person a grasp of some sort of the history of the world. In the days where we seem to be trying to repeat some of history's mistakes (or maybe rectify them) this is a good way to find out just what those events were.
Rating:
Summary: A quick, fun, and thorough review of history
Review: Gonick is not attempting to be the overall scholar that knows all and sees all about history. That is not the point of his "Cartoon History of the Universe" books. This probably is not the best way to read history, but it is a great introduction to that subject. In Volume II he begins with the defeat of Alexander the Great in India, which never mentions his presence in any of their historical documentation of the time, and ends with the beginning of the "Dark Ages" and the appearance of visitors in a "surprising" direction between Europe and China. None of this is a mystery, of course, it can be found in your history books, but most of it is a mystery to lay people because history books are inaccessible to most, and too dense in their materials. And that is the point of the Gonick books: to give the average,on the street person a grasp of some sort of the history of the world. In the days where we seem to be trying to repeat some of history's mistakes (or maybe rectify them) this is a good way to find out just what those events were.
Rating: 
Summary: Gonick has sold out quality for quantity and cash
Review: Gonick's Cartoon History of the World, Vol 1-7 was an early formative experience for me. The art was amazing and the text was witty and informative (expecially for a 13 year old). I'm now 20 and Gonick is still pretty funny, but he apparently doesn't have the time to do the art right any more. I've been disappointed with everything I've read of his since that first great book. I'll bet he's banking like a bandit though.
Rating:
Summary: Sign me up for C H o U III. Will you get to the plague?
Review: I bought Cartoon History of the Universe I 'cause I was kind of disturbed at my total inability to distinguish a phillipino from a philistine. After reading Gonick's treasure I now know that they are slightly differet kinds of pasta salad imported to Portugal via the spice route through Sammarkand by Marco Polo, Dave Barry, and Pocohontas. If there are any inaccuracies above just let it be my testament to wanting more. When will Cartoon History of the Universe III come out? I loved the book. Very informative. I'm reading both again cause I spent the first read laughing leaving little in my memory banks. These books are a great broad brush truly global sketch of history from the little people to the kings that for me serve as an excellent coat rack upon which I will hang more detailed histories for particular eras gone by.
Rating:
Summary: A fantasticly funny book- Gonick has done it again!
Review: I can't believe it gonick once again has written a book that was not only funny, but educational and easy to read. I'm 12 and I understood it in its cartoon form. Don't read it if you didn't read the first and if you've read the first get this one. Lotsa love to my aunt who got me hooked on the first version. END
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