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Summary: From a student's point-of-view
Review: I'm currently taking a World Studies course and this book is a great complement! Everytime we finish a unit in school, I go back and read that section of the book. This book acts as a great review and it really reinforces some key points. The comics are also just hilarious to read. I'd definately reccomend A Cartoon History of the Universe for any students taking history courses that they mind find a bit dull. This book could really give you a new perspective.
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Summary: This compilation is awesome!!!
Review: If any book will change a young mind's opinion on learning history, it's this one. I have never seen a more entertaining reference book and, save a third addition to this series, I probably never will. His combination of wit, fundamental education, and an ability to convey complex historical concepts concisely and accurately make him one of the best creative minds of this literary genre. This work is superb for all ages, but probably most impacting on a high school level. An excellent book!
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Summary: Nothing like it anywhere!!!
Review: If Larry Gonick had written the ancient history books, chances are we would all be staying awake during world history class. This book is not only funny, but informative as well. Both trivial and essential topics are addressed and explained in wonderful cartoon detail. If this book doesn't get you excited about ancient history, then my friend give up hope, because if this doesn't nothing will. Gonick takes us from the beginning of time to Alexander the great, and it's a fun and memorable ride the whole way. OH, but don't be discouraged by it's large size. Chances are you'll finish it in a day or two AT THE MOST!! It's so entertaining, you'll take it with you to the carpool and read it while you 'work'. This book will double you IQ, I gurantee it. And you'll becoming back to it no mattter how many times you reread it. I can not recommend this book enough, if I could change the history text book ciriculum to include this I would. But I can't so you'll just have to settle for the next best thing.
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Summary: Wacky and weird: a great way to learn some history
Review: Irreverent, goofy, funny, entertaining, and educational: all apply to this unique book. This particular book gives a good account of evolution. Lots of fun, which clearly has educational value. The second book, vols 8-13, is not nearly as entertaining. If you don't mind some fun being poked at traditional religious beliefs, this is a good history book for older kids and adults.
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Summary: Recommend to my students
Review: Just a few minutes ago, a student dropped into my office to discuss my class, the history of Western art from prehistory to the middle ages. She said that she finds the sheer amount of time and material that we are covering overwhelming, and asked if I could recommend a book to help her get it all in context. I told her that this book was probably the best, and most enjoyable, introduction to the material that she would find. In fact, our college library should probably order it, since it's a very useful resource.
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Summary: From Primordial Soup to Religious Nuts
Review: Most of us (even after we've read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States) struggle with a historical view that is a quagmire of dates and places and names, virtually all of the latter male and most unpronounceable. If you ever wanted to just get the big picture, this is the book. Funny too. It'll have you laughing aloud, and contains many unforgettable lines ("That crumbling sound you hear is the status of women.") There are, alas, just a few unforgettable errors as well, such as the panel that shows the triceratops (a confirmed vegetarian) pursuing another dinosaur as prey. But no doubt Gonick just put those in to see if we're paying attention
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Summary: Cool concept -- really works!
Review: Never has history been so fun, or so understandable. Gonick really adds substance to dates and facts and his subtle humor can really make you question about long-held beliefs you may have had. (Such as what did Solomon REALLY mean by his parable to cut the child in half?)I will admit that at times, the book seems a little stretched thin, as if he's hurrying to get through everything, but on the whole, Cartoon History of the Universe allows the student of history to gain a quick insight to the events that shaped our world.
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Summary: Exceptionally caricatured.......
Review: Partly to blame for my purchase of those awesome USPS postage stamp cartoon set, which I later mounted and frame for posterity!
Good readin'!
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Summary: Why Volume 7 looks different
Review: Several readers have complained that the drawing in Volume 7 doesn't look so hot. I guess I agree. The reason is that, smitten with the work of the Maylasian cartoonist Lat, I thought I'd try to draw it with a pen. All the previous volumes were drawn with a brush. Well, I still think Lat is one of the world's great cartoonists, but I gave up on the pen after 48 gruelling pages. Volumes 8-13 were also all drawn with a brush, and so will all future volumes!!! I'm not done!
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Summary: The BEST introduction to history possible...
Review: Some of the big, thick and juicy history books can make the average reader's eyes bulge with terror. "The History of the Whole World!" or "World History Second by Second!" will probably disencourage the general interested reader by the threat of massive papercuts alone. There's something about the word "cartoon" that adds appeal to any subject. "The History of the Universe!" by itself may make knees tremble, but "The CARTOON History of the Universe!" now my hands are a-grabbin' at the bookshelf. And grab we should; we should grope, fondle, and possess this great volume that will likely turn any historaphobe into a walking timeline. History? Entertaining? NEVER! Yes, awake from your dogmatic slumbers, the dream can be realized. This book is funny, genuinely funny. And it's not a parody along the lines of "1066 and All That" - it's real history presented in an amazingly underrated educational genre. The first book is chopped up into seven volumes which can be read more or less like serial comic books. Dramatic teasers provide segueways between the volumes, and keep the story flowing. Like it's subtitle says: "From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great", and since subtitles never lie, that's what you get. THE BIG BANG starts off this book, and the book follows an evolutionary line - at one point outright stating "Darwin was right" (pg. 52). So, be warned all of you whose cars are adorned with fishes labeled "Truth" eating smaller fishes labeled "Darwin" - this tome may not be for you. There is a long discussion about the evolution of sex, some "naughty" cartoons - which are usually hilarious - which leads into the evolution of species from the cambrian to the quaternary period. Humanity enters the scene, and the evolution of humans is covered through homo habilis to the "Cro-Magnon Conquest of the World". From then on some of the major early peoples and their societies are covered: Sumeria, the Semites, the Egyptians, the Acheans, the Hittites, the Assyrians, the peoples of the Old Testament, the Philistines, the Acheans, the Spartans, the Athenians... I'm sure I left a lot out, but you get the idea. There is a great chapter on the war between Persia and Greece, including the events that lead up to it. The final chapter of the book is aptly titled "All About Athens" and covers such historical stars as Pericles, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. The book ends, as the aforementioned subtitle promises, with Alexander the Great's entry into India. Volume 7's teaser suggests that book II will linger in India for a bit. The book also includes great footnotes, great drawings (a sidenote: why does the style of the artwork change so drastically in Volume 7?), a great bibliography with short reviews of works Gonick used in researching this cartoon cathedral, and a stubborn refusal to consider anything out of the scope of inquiry. Gonick brings up historical issues that would never be taught in schools (I leave the reader to discover these). Even the issues surrounding the status of women and the rich and the poor are put in for good measure. I can't imagine a better way to be introduced to history, especially for the curious adult, since to say that the book is NOT G-Rated would be an egregious understatement (since the book contains many adult themes, graphic cartoon violence, and descriptions of many disturbing things that make up human history, it's hard to say if the book is for kids or not, notwithstanding the "cartoon" in the title - I guess this is best left as a personal decision). Still, even those knowledgable in history will enjoy it, because, dang it, it's a comic book after all! Of course, and this is obvious, hopefully this book will serve as a springboard for an interest in history. By itself it's a great outline filled with general knowledge, but supplemented with more reading it becomes a road to unfathomable historical knowledge with which can come a better understanding of our place in the universe.
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