The Cartoon History of the Universe II, Volumes 8-13: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (Pt.2) Paperback Author: Visit Amazon's Larry Gonick Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0385420935 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Amazon.com Review
Continuing right where the first book left off,
The Cartoon History of the Universe II once again combines Gonick's superb cartooning with the lessons of history. Find out what Lynn Johnston, creator of
For Better of Worse, calls "a gift to those of us who love to laugh and who love to learn." Part II contains volumes 8 to 13, from the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (and India, too!).
From Publishers Weekly
Gonick has done it again with a diffuse but deep excavation into early civilizations from ancient China to the Germanic tribes. In some ways, Gonick asks a lot of American readership's occidental training by detailing every dynastic hotshot from the Orient. This also being a fertile time for the development of religious cults, Gonick spends much time on Christ (whom he insists on calling "Jeshua ben Joseph"), Confucius, (not, one might note, Lao Tsu or K'ung fu-tsze), Buddha and the like. Gonick's main focus is not to outline the contributions that allowed their teachings to survive the centuries, but rather to humanize them, and some come across as fanatical seekers simply looking for a following, a good meal, a wicked battle, a girlfriend or a shower. The artist's style is versatile and engaging, and his asides, puns and parenthetical references do much to keep the reader's attention throughout this tome, but that cannot entirely make up for the fact that some of this history is just plain dry. However, aficionados of cartoon blood, backstabbing, sex and history will love this volume, and might find a place for it near their encyclopedias.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Books with free ebook downloads available Download The Cartoon History of the Universe II, Volumes 8-13: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome
- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (September 18, 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385420935
- ISBN-13: 978-0385420938
- Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Even though this is a collection of cartoons and the text in the dialog balloons is generally meant to be frivolous, it is possible to learn a lot of history from the book. Unlike so many history books that concentrate on Western Europe and derivatives, this one deals extensively with India and China. Volume 8 deals with the early history of India and how the great religions that we associate with India arose. From it, you also learn the origins of the great early works of Indian civilization such as Bhagavad Gita.
The origins of the ancient Chinese civilization are covered in volumes 9 and 10. Most of the points deal with the battles for supremacy and feature court intrigue, deception and a lot of killing. We tend to think of massive deaths in war as being a modern invention, but that is a misconception. Well before the year 0, the army of Chin was ambushed and massacred, over 200,000 men were killed in one day.
Chapter 11 begins with the last days of Alexander the Great. It correctly points out that while Alexander was married to a Persian, that union was largely political. The great love of Alexander's life was Hephaestion, his male grand vizier. When Hephaestion died, Alexander grieved over the body for two days. The next sections chronicle the origin and rise of Rome as a great power. Once again, it is largely a tale of murder, intrigue and war. As the power of Rome grew, it was no longer possible to maintain the republican form of government. At first the supreme position was called the consulship, where the holder was powerful, but not yet a dictator. All this changed when Julius Caesar marched off to conquer Gaul and then returned to march on Rome. This began several decades of near constant warfare in the Empire, some of which was civil.
Comics have no limits. Anything can get depicted with words and pictures. And, after Larry Gonick completes his "Cartoon History of the Universe" series, most everything will be. Over the past three decades Gonick has stretched modern comics from the purely fictional into the scientific and historic. He has cartoonified esoteric subjects that would bore most medieval scriveners. Snoozers like statistics, genetics, physics, chemistry (and the one exception, that great unmentionable - blush, blush - puritans look away quick!) come alive like golems to terrorize despisers of knowledge. These collections make learning palatable even for those with Beavis and Butthead mentalities. As such, that unobtainable indefatigable unreachable, almost paradoxical, oxymoron of oxymorons, the "educational comic," seems close to fruition and perfection. Somewhere an educator just gagged. Above all, as if turning the comics industry on its head wasn't enough, Gonick has undertaken his magnum opus: a multivolume chronological multicultural history of our known universe in cartoon form. Overachiever detector! Bzzzt! Bzzzzt!
Book I, volumes 1-7, of this pen and paper masterwork started with a BIG BANG and wormed its way to Alexander the Great's voluminous conquests. Book II, volumes 8 - 13, picks up where it left off, but not before taking a dizzying tour through India and China. Volume eight covers India from Harappa to the Bhagavad-Gita (with its eerie page length depiction of Krishna's "revelation" to Arjuna) and Ashoka with the origins of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism tossed into the cultural salad. Gonick also manages a stunning two page summary of the Mahabharata, the 74,000 verse Hindu epic creation poem. Only comics could pull this off. Volumes 9 and 10 grapple with the infinity of Chinese history.
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