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The Cartoon Guide to U.S. History #1-2
The Cartoon History of the United States
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.
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.
392 pages, Paperback
Published August 14, 1991
39 people are currently reading
775 people want to read
About the author
Larry Gonick
43 books293 followersLarry Gonick (born 1946) is a cartoonist best known for The Cartoon History of the Universe, a history of the world in comic book form, which he has been publishing in installments since 1977. He has also written The Cartoon History of the United States, and he has adapted the format for a series of co-written guidebooks on other subjects, beginning with The Cartoon Guide to Genetics in 1983. The diversity of his interests, and the success with which his books have met, have together earned Gonick the distinction of being "the most well-known and respected of cartoonists who have applied their craft to unravelling the mysteries of science" (Drug Discovery Today, March 2005).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
June 2, 2021
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.
I wasn't super impressed by the art though. The cartoons just didn't seem that imaginative or interesting to me.
April 26, 2008
Did you know...
-that the French and Indian War was, contrary to popular belief, not fought between the French and Indians?
-that in 1855, Nicaragua was conquered...by an American?
-what, exactly, Roosevelt meant when he famously stated, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself?"
All this, and more, is in The Cartoon History of the United States. This is American history the way they don't teach you in classes - graphic novel format! While it may be a bit superficial, you've got to give it some credit - the guide rips its way through the "discovery" of America to the early 1990s, all the while dropping uncomfortable facts that your high school history teacher is probably hesitant to discuss. It's an enormously entertaining and informative comic that will hopefully launch further reading. Nearly two decades later, we need an updated version!
--Ian
-that the French and Indian War was, contrary to popular belief, not fought between the French and Indians?
-that in 1855, Nicaragua was conquered...by an American?
-what, exactly, Roosevelt meant when he famously stated, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself?"
All this, and more, is in The Cartoon History of the United States. This is American history the way they don't teach you in classes - graphic novel format! While it may be a bit superficial, you've got to give it some credit - the guide rips its way through the "discovery" of America to the early 1990s, all the while dropping uncomfortable facts that your high school history teacher is probably hesitant to discuss. It's an enormously entertaining and informative comic that will hopefully launch further reading. Nearly two decades later, we need an updated version!
--Ian
January 9, 2012
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.
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.
May 26, 2020
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.
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.
May 17, 2019
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.
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.
October 6, 2021
I like this book because it helped me understand certain topics of United States History more easily.
July 31, 2008
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.
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.
July 23, 2010
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.
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.
January 31, 2019
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.
December 12, 2012
This is how you reacquaint yourself with the stuff you forgot in high school.
January 23, 2014
This is a fun way to learn history instead of reading thick old textbook or listening to teachers in class. Awesome!
April 13, 2018
Very biased book.
July 12, 2021
Как поставить шесть звёзд?
November 26, 2018
If you are the casual historian as well as a hard-core historian like I was at times in my life, then you will appreciate The Cartoon History of the United States. This graphic novel style book is focused on what the title says, the United States. The book tackles topics ranging from how the pilgrims first survived with the help of the Indians to the Nixon Era. This book has hilarious drawing to go with the simplistic explanations of all of the situations that the massive book describes. I would use this book in my classroom as a good starting point for all of my students if they wanted to begin to learn about the history of the country that they live in. I for one started reading this book when I was about 5 years old and I still revisit that book just to brush up on my US history from time to time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about history, and read comics at the same time.
January 5, 2025
Gonick takes a blackly humorous, caustic view of American history. He rarely misses an opportunity to point out the numerous negatives of the construction of the "American Dream"--colonial suppression and slaughter of Indigenous peoples, slavery, almost constant political corruption, brutal suppression of worker movements, you name it: Gonick makes sure it gets included. If this book were published today, it would be condemned as "woke" by the usual suspects and banned in Florida. That said, it's a breezy, readable, and often amusing gallop through American history--even at its 300-page-plus length, it could hardly be anything else. It reads somewhat more like an illustrated text than a graphic novel, but Gonick's cartooning chops are evident. He wears his underground influence son his sleeve--even explicitly mentioning then in the book, when he gets to the 1960s, which is fine by me. An illuminating read, for me, anyway.
February 10, 2021
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.
January 20, 2024
My understanding of US history is very lacking as my social studies class spent a lot of time on event, date, location memorization and current events. Since I do like reading historic fiction, I grabbed this as a way to get a better understanding of where different events fell on our country's timeline. I was pleasantly surprised that not only did I get a better understanding of our countries timeline, but I also got some 'why things happened' and some realistic framing of how 'heroes' in our history may have accomplished great thing, but they also were people with flaws and ulterior motives.
September 15, 2017
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.
A good introduction to the history of this country, if you are a teenager.
January 18, 2019
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.
April 3, 2019
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 :)
June 18, 2018
This book was a nice comic that was also knowledgeable. It was cool to see little characters represent their country and talk to the reader about what happened. I personally love it because it teaches about the history of the United States. I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about the USA and how it was made.
what did I like
recommend
brief summary
what did I like
recommend
brief summary
September 9, 2021
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.
April 7, 2025
Reading this made me realize I am more sensitive about how black people are portrayed in US history that I was how other people were portrayed by Gonick in the more distant past. Some of the jokes feel 'too soon' and I worry they make black people seem foolish rather than oppressed.
October 1, 2017
Dated in the age of manga
February 2, 2018
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.
February 27, 2018
Not as good as the Cartoon History of the Universe.
May 19, 2018
Fun way to learn america history
July 21, 2019
It’s very biased and the font is difficult to read.
February 22, 2020
best take on the american revolution and founding fathers i have read in along time.
January 1, 2022
Much more detailed and nuanced than I expected-especially on labor history.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews