The Cartoon History of the United States by Larry Gonick

alone.' A caricature of President James Monroe protests: 'Oh, nothing could be further from the truth,' but his fingers are crossed (meaning that he is, in fact, not telling the truth). government created the Monroe Doctrine to keep European nations from meddling in the Western hemisphere, other Western nations 'took this to mean that all future pillaging would be done by the U.S.A. In his explanation of America's westward expansion in the nineteenth century in The Cartoon History of the United States, for example, he notes that while the U.S. Reviewers regularly praise Gonick for getting right-Gonick and his co-authors pack competing interpretations and insights into tightly structured explanations of the events, conflicts, and policies that make history and science so fascinating. In addition to providing 'the facts'-something Gonick does more than put historical facts into graphic novel form, however. ' Larry Gonick's cartoon history…is one of the most amusing, provocative surveys of the planet's progress ever made.…' In a dozen books written over a span of thirty years, Gonick has proven that the graphic novel form is uniquely suited to nonfiction. In books like The Cartoon History of the Universe, Larry Gonick breathes new life into those topics that you have to study in school-history, chemistry, physics-by joining fast-paced narrative with sometimes crude but always humorous drawings. Gonick's treatments of history and science take readers on a madcap dash through a funhouse of ideas, a whirlwind tour led by a merry band of characters offering essential insights and funny asides along the way. Many school textbooks read like a slow stroll through a musty museum, a tour led by a graying scholar determined not to miss the complexities of the topic, but not those by author/illustrator Larry Gonick.

The Cartoon History of the United States by Larry Gonick