Képregényes világtörténet 2. - Kína tündöklésétől Róma bukásáig

The Cartoon History of the Universe #2

by Larry Gonick, János Kepes (Translator)

A Képregényes világtörténet első része a kritikusok és az olvasók lelkesedését egyaránt kivívta, és óriási bestseller lett világszerte. Most végre megérkezett a magyar olvasókhoz a második kötet is, amely az ősi Kínai Birodalom felvirágzásától a Római Birodalom bukásáig követi nyomon a történelem eseményeit. Ez többek között a legjelentősebb vallási kultuszok kialakulásának is az időszaka.

Genres: History, Comics, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Humor, World History, Cartoon

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Larry Gonick (born 1946) is a cartoonist best known for The Cartoon History of the Universe, a history of the world in comic book form, which he has been publishing in installments since 1977. He has also written The Cartoon History of the United States, and he has adapted the format for a series of co-written guidebooks on other subjects, beginning with The Cartoon Guide to Genetics in 1983. The diversity of his interests, and the success with which his books have met, have together earned Gonick the distinction of being "the most well-known and respected of cartoonists who have applied their craft to unravelling the mysteries of science" (Drug Discovery Today, March 2005).

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this book before, a long, long time ago, but my brother-in-law, Josh, didn't know that when he bought it for me for my birthday. What he did know is that I own (and love) The Cartoon History of the Universe I (especially for its cartoon depiction of the process of evolution), so this was a good bet, and even though I'd read it before, I devoured it fairly quickly after receiving it.

The subtitle of this book is From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome, and it is primarily about these two civilizations. Certainly, I am much more interested in learning about China these days now that Jefferson is learning the language. This was a fabulous primer on early Chinese history, though there were a few places where the plots were involved enough with so many names that I got a little lost. This may be a function of my primarily reading this book while "supervising" the kids playing outside.

The history of Rome was easier, as it is more familiar, and strengthening the connections in my brain between late Roman history and early Christian history is always satisfying. Just because it's something I feel I ought to know, I suppose.

One of my favorite things about these volumes is the frequent use of asides for the author to confess his biases, his degree of confidence in his sources, etc. Add in his obvious love of his subject, and the entertainment value of the comics format, and it's obvious why I'm a Gonick fan.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent continuation from the first volume, The Cartoon History of the Universe II features a welcome introduction to Indian and Chinese ancient history. Definitely stuff I never learned about in school! It might be more goofy than the real thing and unfortunately dependent on ancient works of fiction, but at least it's a starting point for Wikipedia searches.

As with the first volume, your mileage may vary with some of the 90s-acceptable humor. I'm sure the art style for Indian and Chinese characters is...inelegant in some ways as well. But if you can get past the fact that this is a 30 year old read, it's loads of fun.

[Adih Respati · Rating 4 out of 5]

The comic almost-version of Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. MIT's Mathematican Gonick tells all: From Big Bang, evolution, religion, modern civilization. For newbies, this is introduction. Those familiar with the subjects will find Gonick's sense of humor is deeply symbollic and accurate.

If you notice, no english edition of this book available at any local bookstore. That said something about Gramedia's distribution policy.

[Young Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a brilliant comic book series, and it's really comical all throughout the series.

The author makes history fun!

It is interesting that the author's a mathematician, and this wise man tells us that history is like mathematics with cause and effect, input and outcome, in his witty images and languages.

I guarantee the readers won't be disappointed.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's really no excuse for there not being a lot more books in this genre. Get to it, publishing community!

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the second collected volume at the library, but it didn't appeal as strongly. Rome at least partly to blame - emperors condensed to a panel or two of comic just doesn't tell the whole story. China was interesting, up to the comic condensation of "Romance of Three Kingdoms", for lack of other source material apparently.

This volume ends with the onset of the dark ages. I didn't see the third (final?) volume of history in any of the local libraries, so this might end my historical reading journey. Perhaps I will sample another of his works - history of math would make sense.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire done entirely in cartoons! There is a lot of action packed into this volume, featuring major developments in both Eastern and Western history.

Gonick really has a gift for drawing the history of religions in a factual and dispassionate way, which is no small feat during these years of religiously based turmoil. His touch for including fascinating details (like the word decimate actually coming from the Roman slaughter of every tenth person in Greece) and funny drawings (Nero with the rouged cheeks) as the fabric of history unfolds across the volume is engaging and enjoyable.

Although a large portion of this volume can be summarized as: a man seizes power, rules for a while, is killed or overthrown - lather, rinse, repeat, he still has that touch of showing you the bigger picture and the life of the serfs, etc. He also continues to do a great job drawing humorous animals, especially the well-fed lion who is so happy about Christian persecution. I do wish that Caesar's murder had been given a little more page time, and I was disappointed that Attila the Hun only had a cameo appearance (although, again, the cartoon of him saying "boogedy boogedy" to Europe immediately before falling off his horse and dying was pretty hilarious), but both of those episodes are heavily covered by so many other sources that it winds up being of little importance here. He does a good job with Constantine. And he shines in drawing the spread of germs and the impact of the spread of disease across continents. I would have thought that would be harder to draw, but he does it very effectively with the microbe coughs and the bodies in the streets.

I am really excited to keep going with this series, which is high praise for such a long multi-volume history.

[Kogiopsis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. Cool idea, actually - a history of everything in graphic novel form - though this volume at least doesn't deserve to be called a history of the universe since it's focused on human civilization on one puny planet. Still, it was interesting. Lots of detail for a fairly quick read, not much of which I retained.
At first I expected it to be the sort of thing that one could give to a kid to introduce them to history, but later on it became clear that no, one could not. The kid would have some... interesting questions. But a high school-age student would benefit; this sort of overview is exactly the kind of thing likely to pique interest in areas of study like the history of India or China, which are rarely covered in standard 'world history' classes. As for me, well, I got that in detail in my Asian Humanities course, so it wasn't news, but it was still cool. Gonick's illustrations are simple but interesting, and for the most part his 'characters' are visually differentiated enough that it's easy to keep track of them.
All in all, a decent graphic novel/historical summation; nothing extraordinary, but a good way to pass time while waiting for slow webpages to load.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

You could definitely find less engaging ways to learn about ancient India (whose story and culture is related mainly though mythic and religious texts), ancient China (whose story benefits from having lots and lots of official historians) and Rome up to the time of Christ (whose story is related through an even mixture of both). Gonick does a good job of portraying Christ as an even balance between angry political dissident, radical lifestyle advocate and cryptic spiritual guide. I'm sure that's enough to anger some people. If not, there are plenty of jokes about early Christians' slightly masochistic tendencies in the face of persecution from Romans, who were basically wannabe Greeks with more authoritarian tendencies and happened to build some very solid aqueducts. If you want more, there are a good 20 books to read on each culture provided in the bibliography. This is a wonderful series for anyone curious enough to pick it up.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this whirlwind tour of world history, particularly the "World" part: serious, in-depth attention paid to India's and China's political history and religious traditions. The opening chapter on India was particularly good: a clear grounding in the ancient civilizations, the rise of the caste system, and the development of Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The sections on Rome and the rise of Christianity were solid as well. But I was frustrated by the chapters on China--I felt lost in a sea of names and battles with very little sense of how it all connected. The sad thing is, Gonick makes it clear that he is really enthusiastic about Chinese history and WANTS to share it to make it a more prominent part of our culture. I'm not sure how, working with that level of enthusiasm for 100 pages, Gonick couldn't make the story more clear. Overall, though, a good addition to Gonick's impressive series.

[Jaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very good book. However, if one is an ardent Christian, the section on Jesus may possibly offend. But then again, if one is willing to poke fun at oneself's own beliefs, it's quite funny. Again, as I said of the previous volume, I got this back in Middle School. It's a very good read and much of it is very well researched. One thing I like about Larry Gonick is that he tends to cite from primary sources, rather than someone else's research. This means that reading this, the reader will get a very unique interpretation, rather than a regurgitation of someone else's information. But if there's one thing this book does well, is show us just how absurd history can be. Again, my only complaint is that the art towards the end suffers a little. It starts looking rushed towards the end of the Roman Empire and kills the overall consistency of the book's style even just a little bit.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gonick's illustrated overviews of history are just exceptional. I have never laughed so much while learning so much. I go back and read these every so often both as a refresher on history and because they are so entertaining. Vol II deals with the rise and fall of several empires in China, as well as the rise and fall of the Roman empire. It ends just as the Roman empire collapses. The comparison of the two empires at opposite ends of the known world is very interesting. After reading about all the murdering that went on in the upper classes (enormous numbers of people wiped out during every regime change!), I believe I'd vote to be a plebe/peasant. So, overall, very good stuff.

[Preethi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This Volume 8-13 got me all riled up!! Its not the supposed-to-be-funny digs at Hinduism, ancient India, Buddhism, Ashoka and Buddha so far, because an trying to be all objective and rational about this. Its the factual inaccuracies that's getting to me!! What terrible editing!! Look at the last panel towards right - prime Minister in South India??? Really? For a book published in 1990, this is terrible!!!

[Kels Akiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second installment of Larry Gonick's Cartoon History captures much of the same successes as the first collection. These volumes once again cover a large amount of material (China, India, and European human history) in a short and digestible format. It should act as an entertaining primer for the casual reader who has minimal historical knowledge - even those more familiar should still find the summaries to be both comical and informative.

[Sorcha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gonick is the man. I could never get into the China parts though and feel guilty about it. I'm not sure if it's the subject matter or the fact that he had to go so quickly. Good overall though.

[Eugenia Kutaliova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Колись я вже мала завдання читати комікс, тож запаслася двома, і цей другий терпляче чекав на поличці своєї черги. І от вона прийшла. З Ларрі Ґоніком я вже знайома, дотепний чувак. Цей том коміксів охоплює період від розквіту Китаю та занепаду Риму. Одразу скажу: книжка мені не зайшла.

Китайська історія - безкінечні Сю, Лю, Мінь, Сянь, Чу, Чжу, Ся, Ля і тд. Хто кому ким доводиться і хто на кого напав, убив чи полюбив - заплутуєшся вже на третій сторінці. Все таке одноманітне, що я просто пробігла очима ці розділи, а це чи не третина книжки, бо зрозуміти годі. Якби ще це був повноцінний текст, а так в коміксі передати суть конфлікту і хронологію досить складно.

Далі було про древній Рим. Досить кумедно, але у Джонсона і Джері Тонера це написано значно краще й інформативніше.

Потім цікаво пройшлися по зародженню християнства, постаті Ісуса Христа, яку роль відіграв Понтій Пілат в його долі, і хто він все-таки був такий. Цей розділ мені сподобався. Якщо перестаєш міфологізувати релігійних персон, все виглядає значно прозаїчніше.

І знову було про Китай, я навіть не намагалася вникнути.

Можу сказати, що це не той формат, який дозволяє гарно зрозуміти історію світу, бо часто воно дуже спрощене, якщо не сказати спримітизоване. Часом бувають цікаві моменти, але загалом книжка не варта вишукування цих самих моментів. Тож я все ще в пошуках цікавої книжки з історії.

Окремо хочу відзначити дотепний український переклад. Там є і Руслана, і гривні і інші українські реалії. Респект перекладачу.

[Farah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Setelah sebelumnya membaca jilid pertama rangkaian buku ini beberapa bulan lalu, aku akhirnya berhasil menyelesaikan jilid kedua buku ini dibulan Oktober. Masih sama seperti buku pendahulunya, dalam jilid kedua ini Larry Gonick kembali menguraikan rangkaian sejarah peradaban manusia lewat media kartun lucu dan menghibur.

Tidak hanya berhasil membuat belajar sejarah menjadi lebih "menyenangkan", ilustrasi lucu dalam Kartun Riwayat Peradaban juga berhasil "mencerahkan" sejarah peradaban manusia yang sebenarnya lumayan kelam karena dipenuhi dengan perang, skandal, dan kematian. Kalau kamu bosan dengan bacaan yang selalu penuh dengan kata-kata dan ingin belajar sejarah lewat media kartun yang lebih menghibur, sepertinya buku yang satu ini adalah buku yang tepat untukmu.

Ulasan lengkap terkait novel ini dapat ditemukan di sini.

Also found Farah on Blogger | Instagram

[Muhammad Kahlil Gibran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lumayan keren. Sebenarnya gue mau beli Jilid I, tapi udah habis. Jadi harus beli jilid II.
JILID I kayak lumayan seru daripada ini, karena ada cerita ledakan besar dan mungkin ada cerita tentang evolusi?

Walaupun ini komik tapi baca agak susah sih, mungkin karena gue belum pernah atau punya dasar ilmu dari yang disampaikan buku ini. Buku ini memberikan gue ilmu yang berbeda sekali. Dari cerita munculnya imperium, tata krama, agama, tokoh-tokoh penting, dan lainnya. Ada bagian lucunya wkwkwk. Yang bikin susah baca ini karena banyak sekali nama tokoh-tokoh yang susah hapal apalagi bahasa cina, jadi agak kurang nyambung sih.

Keren sih! Lagi nunggu jilid I dan III.

[Shalla Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having had volume 1 since I was little, and it teaching me all I needed to know about prehistory, I was over the moon to discover there was a volume 2 and got it for my Christmas. Although the book itself is as clever and well-researched as the first, I did not enjoy reading it. This is not the fault of Larry Gonick at all but of the human race in general, who, as you read this book, never cease to amaze with the depths of depravity and horribleness which makes up our every day existence. We have not learnt anything in our short time on this Earth except to invent better ways of killing each other and everything else. The sooner we become extinct the better. Merry Christmas.

[Jc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I re-read Gonick’s 3-part series to serve as discussion material for a friend who had no background in world history, but has a desire to dip his foot in. I am very much enjoying my second visit. For those who have not experienced Gonick’s graphic novels (this series; Cartoon Guide to Statistics; Cartoon Guide to Calculus; Cartoon Guide to Genetics; …) they are all wonderful introductions and/or refreshers for the basics of their respective fields. Fun to read, plus great ways to learn. I recommend all or any of them (and may re-read others soon). This is my second read through of Vol. 2. (will essentially repeat this comment for all three volumes.

[Reiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Semakin lucu dan menarik setiap babnya. Kali ini, Gonick mengunjungi India, Tiongkok dan Romawi serta membedah ciri khas peradaban masing-masing. India kaya akan pengalaman religiusitas, Tiongkok dengan pertentangan keluarga, serta Romawi dengan ekspansinya.

Paling menarik menurutku adalah ketika Gonick membahas tentang keluarga dinasti Tiongkok dan Romawi kuno. Menarik untuk mengetahui peradaban-peradaban tersebut muncul dari berita yang lebih mirip legenda, lalu mengukir jalannya masing-masing.

[Dannan Tavona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting to show its age in places

Historical reference
The very talented Larry Gonick attempts cover amount of time, including a lot of prehistory. Some of the changes are almost yearly. Denisovans are just of big events that have overtaken this erudite series. Sadly, there many more. Still, it's insightful and witty book, with plenty of wry observations on the human condition contained therein. As long as you know that some the records will require amending, it's a useful reference.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasant and amusing way to learn about very important stuff. This book is a great way to sneak history into your child's diet. Read them yourself and learn all those things that you missed or were never taught at all in school. Highly recommended. Nice to know that Jacqueline Onassis was the editor and that Gilbert Shelton, creator of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was a big fan and gave these books their names.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have the 1994 edition so probably bought this sometime that year and I would have read it then too. I recently re-read Vol 1 -7 which I really enjoyed but I found this disappointing in comparison. I am not sure why I do not like this as much but it probably goes some way to explain why it took me so long to read it again.

[Brown Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though not as enjoyable as the first volume of this history, this is still a book people should read, or at least give a chance. I feel the art doesn't have the same pizzazz as volume 1(but what do I know), but the jokes are still strewn throughout and the overall presentation is still accessible, insouciant and delectable.

Still a great gift for a tween.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

More comic fun with history from Larry Gonick; this edition covers India, China, and ancient Rome. It's always a little hard to absorb history because there's just so damn much of it. "Cartoon History" would make great companion reading for kids in their history classes, and adults will have fun with it too, and learn something besides.

[Judy]

I read this book primarily for an overview of the Roman times. These history books actually require some fundamental background in order to fill in the cartoon blanks. It is interesting that Gronick presents much legendary history, usually identified as such, along with the known history. Obviously, he feels quite free to offer his own interpretation often in keeping with his comic vein.

[Sinondang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku jilid 2 dari 3 jilid, sehingga ini merupakan lanjutan jilid 1. Lucu tanpa mengurangi logika. Harap membuka pikiran seluas-luasnya karena ada beberapa hal (terutama mengenai keagamaan) yang mendobrak keyakinan yang sudah ada.

[Rais · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sebelum membaca jilid kedua dan ketiga alangkah lebih baiknya membacanya berurutan, sudah membaca yg jilid pertama dan yg kedua tidak juga mengecewakan, buku sejarah yang dikemas dalam komik yang sangat menarik

[Backpfeifengesicht · Rating 4 out of 5]

Setelah membaca buku komik ini, tiga hal yang mengusik pikiran saya, yaitu:
(1) Peradaban dunia sebagian besar diwarnai oleh perang dan pembunuhan.
(2) Mempertanyakan kembali apa perbedaan legenda dan sejarah.
(3) Saya masih harus banyak membaca buku.