The Cartoon History of the Universe I, Volumes 1-7: From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great

This book was responsible for rekindling my love of history and for me eventually returning to university and getting a degree. it is one of the funniest, most erudite and most charming books in my whole collection, and sits proudly beside more 'respectable' histories.

The cartoon style is just the right side of wacky without trivialising its subjects and humour runs off every page. More surprising are the things you can learn (The institutionalised weirdness of the Spartans! Minoan flush toilets! Persians disrupted enemy cavalry with camels!) that Gonick happily shares.

Enjoy - it's a marvellous historical primer and a solid base for further reading. Five Stars

Books of historical humor are of two types: those that are more funny than factual and those that are more factual than funny. This one is the latter type. You will find no laugh-out-loud hilarity here. No doubt it is clever, entertaining, and amusing, but you won't split your sides laughing. It is solidly fact-based, however, and you can really learn from it. You could even use it as a textbook. Bibliography included. The art work is outstanding!

Book 1 of the series covers a lot of ground, from the Big Bang to the Old Testament. Through the dinosaurs and the early hominids to the first civilizations at Egypt and Sumer, and points in between. Early agriculture, tools, and animal domestications. Nomadic tribes and warfare. Volume 4 show more follows the Israelites from Sumer to Egypt to Canaan to Babylon, with much violence along the way. But such was the Holy Bible!

A good overview, but not always an easy read, with so much material crammed into so few pages. Thirteen billion years of history in one book means that some of the kings tend to get jumbled together towards the end. show less

This graphic novel gives an illustrated, broad look at world history. Everything is done with humor, which is what keeps the book going. The biggest issue with this book is that some things have changed since it was written. There is no longer a brontosaurus and we now know that humans are not descended from neanderthal's, they were actually a totally separate branch on the evolutionary tree.

What a great book. Gonick is funny, informed, and a great artist. He zips us through history from the Big Bang to Alexander the Great in this edition, his first of the "Cartoon History of the Universe" series. It's a joy to read this and a great reference besides.

13 billion years of history from the Big Bang through the rise of Alexander the Great. Amazingly Gonick shows much of the history of both halves of humanity - there really were women who contributed to our existence. The drawings add clarification and humor. This is a good historical overview recommended for everyone from middle schoolers to adults.

This graphic novel gives an illustrated, broad look at world history. Everything is done with humor, which is what keeps the book going. The biggest issue with this book is that some things have changed since it was written. There is no longer a brontosaurus and we now know that humans are not descended from neanderthal's, they were actually a totally separate branch on the evolutionary tree.

This graphic novel gives an illustrated, broad look at world history. Everything is done with humor, which is what keeps the book going. The biggest issue with this book is that some things have changed since it was written. There is no longer a brontosaurus and we now know that humans are not descended from neanderthal's, they were actually a totally separate branch on the evolutionary tree.