The Cartoon History of the United States by Larry Gonick

The Cartoon History of the United States Reviews

• 
  Tim

  I enjoyed this well enough. It's quite the task to try to summarize US history with one book of cartoons. The author had to choose what to focus on and what to exclude, which led to some frustrating moments where I was disappointed to see some things excluded or summarized differently than I would have liked. But that's all part of the fun. I respect the author for making some tough decisions on what he thought was most important. It was illuminating to see his vision of how to boil down US history to it's essentials, even if I often didn't agree.
  
  I wasn't super impressed by the art though. The cartoons just didn't seem that imaginative or interesting to me.
• 
  Barron

  This Howard Zinn-inspired dinosaur of a history primer employs the following astonishing sentence to explain the myth of Western expansion by wagon train: "the slave caravan, or soul train, at the rear, was left out of the forward-looking American myth." Yes, it's a comic book, but it's also a time capsule of awful early 1990s wise-guy liberalism; the kind that thinks the only interesting thing about American history is how racist it was, but manages phrases like the ones above; the kind that can't shut up about drug trips the writer and his buddies had during the '60s (p. 330: "the same day Kennedy was shot, two of my high-school friends--16 and 17 years old (!!)--took peyote for the first time"); the kind that's apparently willing to promote Reaganite anti-tax dogma because it was new and fit with that aging generation's "throw the bums out" pose. Here is the author on women: "So impressed were they to discover each other's whole personalities that some feminists fell in love with each other!!" And is it really true, as he claims, that Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson were the only two people in American history to have their last names turned into "-isms"?
  
  Today, after decades of change in American culture by turns sober, tolerant, and berserk, Hamilton and John Adams would be treated as more than just rich assholes and Jackson as more than just a genocidal maniac (if still that as well...). "Cartoon History" was part of a trend in explanatory comic books, along with "Cartoon History of the Modern World" and "Cartoon History of the Universe," "of DNA," etc., and indeed was assigned to me as a primer on American history for a con law class. It's hard not wish I'd been given Daniel Patrick Moynihan's "A Cartoon History of United States Foreign Policy, 1776-1976" instead.
• 
  Dakota Morgan

  The Cartoon History of the United States is a terrific, freewheeling, extremely fun, very liberal primer on the history of the US. It hits all the key points, plus some of the fun in-between stuff, and even offers the author's true-life take on doing drugs in the 60s.
  
  That said, Larry Gonick has a tendency to stick to what he's personally interested in, meaning that some key pieces of history get short shrift. World War II passes in four pages, for example. Sure, not much of it took place in the United States, but it certainly seems like an enormous part of 20th century US history. Socialism and labor rights, on the other hand, get pages and pages of content. It's all entirely fascinating, but does feel a bit like the author writing to his strengths rather than being a true historian.
  
  Since this was written while Bush the First was president, though, I gotta give Gonick cred for being ahead of the curve on including the black experience in early American history. Without being overly heavy-handed, Gonick reminds the reader that behind the success of the colonies, the Revolutionary War, and much of the 19th century were the efforts of slaves. A sad but true reminder that I don't recall from my high school history textbooks.
• 
  James

  This was the first US history book I read cover to cover in 5th grade, I think in 1993? I just re-read it and it mostly holds up pretty good. I wish there was more social and cultural history and he speeds up some in some parts, but as an introduction, I think its pretty good. Would recommend for kids and teenagers who have a budding interest in US History.
  
  It ends in the early 1990s so things like Savings and Loans seems pretty small fries compared to the 2008 Great Recession, so as long as they don't mind not having the last 25 years of history in it, it's a good introduction book.
• 
  Menoedh

  Menyenangkan akhirnya kesampaian juga untuk nyari tahu sejarah amerika. Buat yang pingin tau sejarah amerika tapi ngga mau ribet-ribet baca buku-buku naratif yang tebel, this one could help you a lot.
  
  Tipikal Gonnick yang suka mengkritik dengan cara jokes-jokes cerdas dan ilustratif.
  
  Dipengaruhin banget sama rasa subjektif gue yang sangat besar terhadap negara adi daya yang satu ini, gue berhasil nemuin BANYAK hal-hal negatif tentang amerika. Atau setidaknya ngga cukup lah untuk orang-orang Amerika untuk bangga jadi warga negara U.S
  
  jJngan lupa, gue mereview dengan subjektifitas yang tinggi dan memeperbandingkan dengan sejarah Indonesia sendiri.
  
  so here it goes:
  1.Amerika ngga punya sejarah yang mengesankan (dalam arti nasionalisme). Ngga ada yang bisa cukup dibanggakan. Karena mereka aslinya cuma orang-orang Inggris yang pingin kabur dari kerajaan dengan alasan pribadi masing-masing.
  
  2.Ngakunya sih sekarang negara paling beradab dan modern, padahal sejarah bunuh-membunuh mereka dari awal masa Amerika sampe sekarang cukup banyak dan bervariatif.
  
  3.Salah satu benua yang paling terkenal dengan perbudakan kulit hitam selama berabad-abad selain Afrika.
  
  4.Satu-satunya perang yang punya makna buat mereka adalah PERANG SAUDARA. Nope, bukan perang kemerdekaan melawan penjajahan. Satu negara kok perang? Demi perbudakan pula.
  
  5.Mereka memang bukan negara yang termasuk list korupsi teratas di dunia, tapi politik monopoli dan kapitalis mereka sebenernya sama rendahnya dengan korupsi. Dimana si kaya semakin kaya dan si miskin semakin miskin.
  
  6.Penduduk asli mereka yang disebut indian itu malah dibunuhin, disingkirin, dan dikasih hutan lindung seperti layaknya hewan langka. Hutan lindungnya dikasih nama cantik-reservoir.
  
  7.Banyak ngasih ide-ide tentang hukum negara dan dunia (The only positive thing I found about america's history)
  
  8.Budaya pertama mereka berasal dari orang-orang yang mereka perbudak: Jazz. Itu juga sebenernya Musik, bukan budaya.
  
  9.Sejarah mereka penuh dengan perang invasi ke negara-negara lain. Of course itu bukan penjajahan, itu INVASI. Korea, Vietnam, Irak, Afghanistan, Jepang. Invasi!
  
  10.Ketika mereka dihajar di Pearl harbour, 1500 navy meninggal dunia. Terus mereka hajar balik dengan bom atom (yang menurut gue overreacted) ke Nagasaki dan Hiroshima, sukses membunuh warga sipil sebanyak 220000 orang.
  
  11. Masih berkoar-koar melarang pengembangan senjata nuklir, tapi secara terbuka mamerin senjata nuklirnya.
  
  12.No, they didnt chose sides on world war I and II. They just sold millions of war weapons to England for the welfare of their contry (!).
  
  One thing I like about US is only the never ending TV series. Period.
• 
  Deana

  My history education is severely lacking. Three times in my life I have had to study American history - in eighth grade, in high school, and in college. Each time, we begin with the "discovery" of America and continue. By the end of the year/semester, we've just passed the civil war. And then the teacher proceeds to cram the last part of history (after the civil war) into the last few weeks of class. Once, I think we made it to the 1920s, but never further. So I picked up this book thinking this would be a less tedious way of learning about the last 150 years or so.
  
  Of course, this book also begins with the discovery of America, which was fine. For the part of the book up until the civil war, I actually kind of enjoyed it - it goes fairly quickly, the jokes are entertaining, and it was a great way to jog my memory about events. But for the second half, when (in theory) I would be learning NEW material, I ended up somewhat lost. I finished it, but since the material isn't covered in depth and there are lots of jokes that you have to know the background of the event in order to get the joke... it wasn't very useful.
  
  In conclusion, if you want a silly book to jog your memory about history this is a great way to do it. But if you want to LEARN things, find something else.
• 
  Samuel

  I was a little disappointed with this Cartoon History because it seemed to one sided unlike his other Cartoon History books. It focused on race but seems to drift away from Native Americans issues as soon as the 1900's comes up (as if nothing has happened since). Only one sentience mentioning Asian-American racism (while championing FDR as a hero in the same chapter) and not one mention to Hispanic racism; yet pages and pages on African-American racism.
  
  What is good about this book was the humor and cartooning to very sensitive subjects. I don't recommend reading this though if you believe history should be taught with an unbiased opinion. The writer fails to hide that he favor liberal values over conservative ones; a good historian should not favor sides.
• 
  Matthew Olgin

  Entertaining at times, but contains some blatant left leaning bias. Would be higher if this "historian" stayed in the middle of the lane. The author also seemed to want to focus on how racist parts of American history are as if all of American history revolves around race.
• 
  Mary

  This is how you reacquaint yourself with the stuff you forgot in high school.
• 
  Callme Beth

  This is a fun way to learn history instead of reading thick old textbook or listening to teachers in class. Awesome!
• 
  Alina Rozhkova

  Как поставить шесть звёзд?
• 
  Dan McCollum

  This one always sticks with me. I first read it in Middle School - I think it belonged to my Dad originally, but I quickly co-opted it. Up to that point, although being very much into history, I always found American history to be rather dull (I was into Classical and Medieval History, thank you very much!). Gonick's book was one of the first I read that really engaged me with the history of my own country, and made it interesting. I haven't read it in years, and if I did now there might be things that I take some issue with (or maybe not), but this book does somewhat mark the beginnings of my path which would eventually lead me to working on a PhD in history. And so, for that alone, it holds a pretty high place in my esteem.
• 
  Edouard

  I found this book at the library once and thought it would be a good idea to read it to better understand 'Merica. I read it as a comic and not as a history book. I believe it is an interesting read that would warrant being read seriously, while taking notes and thinking over and getting more information on some point.
  
  A good introduction to the history of this country, if you are a teenager.
• 
  Brian Ingram

  After reading Gonick's impressive history of the Modern World and History of the Universe volumes, this was disappointing. I chalk it up to being an earlier, if not his first, work, as it did not cover as much ground as his later work. Perhaps it's because I'm more knowledgeable about US history than world history, so I recognized what was missing. Still, a fun, educational read and worth your time to read.
• 
  Yuliya Prach

  An amazing approach to teaching history! As a person who was never able to learn or remember any dates, persons and events and would get bored at history lessons at school after just 5 minutes, finally I learned so much. It is a very simple, easy to read, sometimes hilarious and with great illustrations which helps a lot to understand and remember information. I would recommend it to everyone who wants to learn a bit of history in non-trivia way :)
• 
  Ostap Bender

  I love Gonick's "Cartoon History of the Universe" series, but with the edition on the United States, he is more sketchy both in historical content and in his artwork. It is a step down but still worth cracking open, as always he makes history fun.
• 
  Anthony Faber

  Pretty amusing cynical look at American history. Pretty good overview, in my opinion, but a conservative might disagree. Goes to near the end of G.H.W. Bush's term.
  
• 
  Tim

  Not as good as the Cartoon History of the Universe.
• 
  Benny Emor

  Fun way to learn america history
• 
  Mandy Helfer

  It’s very biased and the font is difficult to read.
• 
  Edward ott

  best take on the american revolution and founding fathers i have read in along time.
• 
  Rolf

  Much more detailed and nuanced than I expected-especially on labor history.
• 
  Wilmington

  Fantastic book! Hilarious from beginning to end!
• 
  Christina

  Overview by nature, so nothing deep here. But the overview makes it easier to see how we're still dealing with post-Civil War fallout and how things both change and don't change over time.