Cartoon History of the United States

March 12, 2010 | By In Movie |

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5 Comments so far

  1. M. Garcia on March 12th, 2010

    Before buying this one, be aware that Mr. Gonick has very explicitly defined his political orientation in his own website. Read the forums, particularly his spicy comments about Bush and Kerry. Other cartoon guides (Statistics and Physics) were fairly immune to this sort of bias and somewhat enjoyable, but in this one, it cuts right into the meat. The topic is simply out of reach for anyone so blindly submersed (or compromised?) in either conservative or liberal order. Independent thinking, particularly for the writing (or re-writing) of history, is imperative.
    Rating: 2 / 5

  2. homeboy on March 12th, 2010

    This book should have been titled “A People’s Cartoon History of the United States”. Very similar in view and distortion to Zinn’s people’s history, but much more enjoyable because of Gonick’s art and humor. I’ve never seen anything else that makes history so accessible. Too bad he had to present such a one-sided view. I can’t in good conscience recommend this book to impressionable youngsters who haven’t been exposed to more balanced materials.
    Rating: 2 / 5

  3. Sarosh on March 12th, 2010

    Larry Gonick is superb. The book is hilarious. I hope they teach it in schools.

    But there was not enough material on native americans, Cajuns, Chinese(in CA) etc. Also missing were Alaska and Hawaii. but I guess you can pack only so much in so many pages.

    There is definitly a very pronounced political bias. Maybe they should make the cover blue ;-) …. but even the bias created humor in a way…
    Rating: 4 / 5

  4. Anonymous on March 12th, 2010

    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.
    Rating: 2 / 5

  5. Anonymous on March 12th, 2010

    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.
    Rating: 1 / 5

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