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Product Description
Review
"A perfect gift for that teenager who simply can't get American history straight . . . " -- -- San Francisco Chronicle
"Gonick's irreverent humor is effective . . . the text sparkles . . . " -- -- Los Angeles Times
Book Description
What? You don't know what a Burgess is? -- You can't outline the Monroe Doctrine? -- Recall the 14th Amendment? -- Explain the difference between a sputnik and a beatnik?
Then you need The Cartoon History of the United Statesto fill those gaps. From the first English colonies to the Gulf War and the S&L debacle, Larry Gonick spells it all out from his unique cartoon perspective.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, but not a history,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cartoon History Of The United States (Paperback)
Perhaps it is just too ambitious to squeeze 400 years of U.S. history into 380 pages of cartoons.Although I found Larry Gonick's "Cartoon Guide to Physics" both educational and entertaining, I was more than just a bit disappointed in this book. (Of course, I knew so little of physics that I'm not really sure how accurate he was. I do know a bit more about history, particularly U.S. history, and I am convinced he is both inaccurate and biased.) Gonick refers to himself as a historian in several places in the text, but shows many lapses in good, historical thinking. For one thing, he suffers from present-mindedness and parochialism of view. Good historians try to understand the thinking of whatever time and place they are writing. I'm a comics fan, and I know that the medium has to be tightly scripted. Pictures really do need to convey a thousand words, and text can be nowhere near that length. The creator chooses carefully what goes in and what gets left out. The point I'm trying to make is that while I was disappointed in what material was "in" the book, and particularly what was "left out," I realize that this work was a difficult task and there's no way any creator could please everybody. That said, there are still major shortcomings in this book as history, even as infotainment. Gonick makes no attempt to hide his biases, but bias is hardly commendable. While members of all political parties (including those historical parties that no longer exist) are ridiculed and caricatured (not all undeservedly), it is apparent that one modern political party is especially lambasted. Southerners, which are caricatured as a group--no individuals here--are made to look especially bad. The author grew up in the 1960s and still lives there. Every excess of that era is glamorized. Communism and socialism (throughout the scope of U.S. history) are glamorized. And just like the nightly news, the negative is given prominence over the positive. Multiculturalism is good; e pluribus unum, bad. Far from giving the reader a feeling of pride in his country, one finishes the book feeling a bit dirty. Of course, I wouldn't consider a book a good history just because it was filled with jingoistic patriotism and portrayed the U.S. as a utopian society where everyone lived happily ever after. Such a book would lack balance. This book lacks balance. I recommend that this book not be used in schools as children and teenagers lack the faculties to see its bias as most adults may do.
1.0 out of 5 stars
far below his standards.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cartoon History Of The United States (Paperback)
Mr Gonick set the bar very high with his 'Cartoon History of the Universe'. This book is terrible by comparison. The art work is primitive at best, and his biased perception of American history borders on the comical. Unfortunately, that is the funniest part of the book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good but Below Gonick's Usual Standard,
By Wintermute "-wintermute-" (Louisiana, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cartoon History Of The United States (Paperback)
While very good I felt that this book wasn't on the same level as Gonick's History of the Universe. Everything about this book seemed a bit rushed from the writing to the art. It's still very much worth buying but I can't recommend it as much as I would his History of the Universe.
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