The Cartoon History of the Modern World Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution - Softcover

Gonick, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060760044 ISBN 13: 9780060760045

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2006

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Larry Gonick has been creating comics that explain math, history, science, and other big subjects for more than forty years. He has been a calculus instructor at Harvard (where he earned his BA and MA in mathematics) and a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, and he is currently staff cartoonist for Muse magazine. He lives in San Francisco, California.

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.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060760044
• ISBN 13: 9780060760045
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272