Author(s): Larry Gonick

Graphic Novels

Part II of the "Cartoon History of the Modern World" picks up where Part I left off, right after the American Revolution. Gonick illuminates with the Enlightenment, then goes deep into the French Revolution, followed by Napoleon's conquests. He covers everything from the Opium Wars to the post-Napoleonic world, industrialisation and the working class, early 20th-century revolutionaries, World Wars I and II, the Cold War era, religious fundamentalism, and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. After illustrating three centuries of major events and movements around the globe, Gonick finally brings readers to the eve of a new world order, with a semi-united Europe and rising powers in China and India, and in the end reflects on the ongoing challenge of a sustainable future. Review: Like any good historian, Larry Gonick seasons his facts with a good dose of perspective, and like any good cartoonist, he mixes his drama with a good dose of humor. -- Jeffrey Brown, author of Clumsy and Funny Misshapen Body First published 2009.