The Cartoon History Of The Modern World Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution [Paperback]

The Good: The story redistributes usual takes on the Age of Exploration by focusing on Cortes and Meso-American while taking some undeserved focus off Columbus and Magellan, both of whom are traditionally used as landmarks in the timeline. The Lutheran Reformation and the effects it creates are explained fairly well for the uninitiated as well as the first two modern European attempts at republicanism, namely Cromwell's Commonwealth (although it was almost a veiled monarchy) and the Netherlands. The sections about the intricate politics during Carlos V's reign was an especially nice part of this.

The coverage of America's effect on European politics, as well as India's role in all this is a VERY welcome departure from typical accounts, which shows that Mr. Gonick's work isn't revisionist at all- it's accurately world-oriented. But credit is still given to the West's new Enlightenment-era thinkers as well as the more immediate effects of their theorizing, something that many historians seem to trip on.

The Bad: It was a shame to see less coverage of Portugal's (and later other European countries) effects on Africa, which sets the stage for almost everything that happens in Africa from this point on. That Mr. Gonick didn't cover the further spread of the Ming, ongoing contact with the West, the beginning of the Manchu people, or the short but very interesting flare-up of Western culture and technology in Japan seems a terrible shame even if these will be topics covered in the next volume.

A few more Enlightenment thinkers could have been more closely examined as well as the noticeable absence of Russia and Eastern Europe in all this commotion. Again, while much of this may be included by the author in the next volume, even a few passing mentions would have lent a lot more strength to how Mr. Gonick lives to weave these overlapping threads of history together.

The Ugly: Just about anyone reading this book who follows modern politics will find at least a dozen (if not more) veiled references to the state of current foreign policy, especially in Iraq. It is arguable, however, how much of a role relating past history to current events is, but the author could have either been more upfront or otherwise tabled the entire theme. With that said, even the subtle references to how superpowers fall and the contributing factors in their leaderships' foreign policy, are a nice added touch to how relevant the history in this volume is to our modern world.

Informative and funny, but Larry Gonick made a rather odd mistake. He seems to have conflated Thomas More and Thomas Becket. More was not Archbishop of Canterbury, he was Lord Chancellor. He wasn't stabbed to death as Gonick shows--Henry VIII had him beheaded.

I read this book through in one day and still want more. The complicated history of diplomacy between England, Spain and France continues to intrigue as most of the reversals and diplomatic snafus were probably too complicated for such an endeavor. I was a little disappointed to see Queen Elizabeth given such a small part on the world stage that Gonick draws. I also felt that there could have been more material on the pre-Columbus Indians, but I was happy to enjoy the background on the Aztecs and Mayans at least.

With every book in this series I look forward to three things 1. Learning material that I never knew, 2. Reading about material that I knew already but from a completely different perspective and 3. the humor which runs the gammit from hilarious to juvenile. And this book definitely delivers. I knew that the Netherlands played a role in the rise of modern commerce from Neal Stephenson's books and I knew about the tulip crisis but I didn't know about the ways the major powers fought over the Netherlands until they couldn't take over. I never knew anything about the origins of Sikhism, especially not as a fusion religion that tried to take the best of Islam and Hinduism.

Of course, it's also delightful to go over familiar history. King Henry VIII is dismissed as an ambitious despot. Gonick comes down on the Marlowe as a royal spy against Catholic side of the conspiracy theory (of course, we all pretty much agree that he wasn't just killed in the barroom brawl) and the American Revolution is seen in perspective as an opportune rebellion against an England temporarily sick of fighting for its colonies. One hopes that the next installment is a trifle more indepth when dealing with America than Gonick's first attempt which was decidedly Howard Zinn inspired.

Overall, this is an amazing book and you should buy it for all your friends and relatives.