fypast's review against another edition
4.0
It was a nice shorthand form of history. Not a flawless representation by any means... some moments were annoying/frustrating due to a oversimplification of an issue. Ultimately, however, it's a fun overview of 200 years of history. I'll probably check out the other books in the series.
nerdella_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Started out really strong, but in the last couple of chapters it focused too much on America, which might be because the USA has had such an influence on the world in the last century. Africa, on the flip side, didn't get nearly enough attention in the latter half of the book.
nerdella_reads's review against another edition
5.0
Very good overview of the time period, and the accompanying art helped convey complex information in an entertaining way. I want the entire line of these books.
brenticus's review
2.0
This was a bit of a weird one when it comes to history. Not only is it a graphic novel, but it consistently straddles a strange line between lots of information on a subject and not very much.
It generally reads sort of like a brief summary of events - you get the big important points, then it moves on to the next event. But then occasionally it'll go into a lot of depth on something, for example how Gonick spends a ton of time covering Columbus and his expeditions at the start of the book but covers the following couple hundred years of Spanish colonization a page or two at a time scattered throughout the rest of the book. I mean, sure, he was a pretty significant figure, but probably not ten times more significant than Isabella. Hell, he spends about as much time on Potosi as he does on India.
At the same time, this book covers such a large swath of history in so many places that it's hard for things to stick very well. Jumping from the colonization of South America to the Protestant Reformation to the founding of the United States naturally happens across the world over hundreds of years, with many events disjointed enough that it's hard to keep it all in your head. I will say that despite this, Gonick does a good job of showing when things are related - which is especially relevant in all the events around the rise of protestantism and calvinism - he just goes over so much that there are naturally a pile of things that just can't be linked in with the rest.
I found that the art rarely made a notable impression, and the bits of humour and politics all seem like cheap shots that don't really add to the presentation. So the major stylistic choices that differentiate this from a history textbook really fell flat for me.
In the end, I would probably rather have just read a bunch of the books listed as references in the back rather than reading this. It definitely covers useful and interesting information, but it does so in a way that just does not jive with the way I like to learn this stuff.
It generally reads sort of like a brief summary of events - you get the big important points, then it moves on to the next event. But then occasionally it'll go into a lot of depth on something, for example how Gonick spends a ton of time covering Columbus and his expeditions at the start of the book but covers the following couple hundred years of Spanish colonization a page or two at a time scattered throughout the rest of the book. I mean, sure, he was a pretty significant figure, but probably not ten times more significant than Isabella. Hell, he spends about as much time on Potosi as he does on India.
At the same time, this book covers such a large swath of history in so many places that it's hard for things to stick very well. Jumping from the colonization of South America to the Protestant Reformation to the founding of the United States naturally happens across the world over hundreds of years, with many events disjointed enough that it's hard to keep it all in your head. I will say that despite this, Gonick does a good job of showing when things are related - which is especially relevant in all the events around the rise of protestantism and calvinism - he just goes over so much that there are naturally a pile of things that just can't be linked in with the rest.
I found that the art rarely made a notable impression, and the bits of humour and politics all seem like cheap shots that don't really add to the presentation. So the major stylistic choices that differentiate this from a history textbook really fell flat for me.
In the end, I would probably rather have just read a bunch of the books listed as references in the back rather than reading this. It definitely covers useful and interesting information, but it does so in a way that just does not jive with the way I like to learn this stuff.
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