The Cartoon History of the Universe II: Volumes 8-13: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (Cartoon History of the Universe II Vols. 8-13 (Paperback))

Just like the first book, this too, is great !Absolutely loved it !I am going to see this series through to the end.

This is supposed to be about History written in a fun way as a comic strip. While it might be engaging, it is useful only if it is credible. I was shocked to see the section on India. It was unsurprisingly short and post-dated by several thousand years. This of course is keeping with the Western hegemony to relate back historical achievements to only Greco-Roman roots and mention curious China because that is unavoidable. This time I felt it was thankfully short.Comics can take potshots / offend / be whacky etc. But if this is also intended to be a rendition of History, than surely some diligence is required. The pages are replete with the discredited / disproved Aryan invasion theory. Just for the record.. there is NO Aryan race. This at least has been comprehensively proven by now. The only mention in the vedas are "Arya" meaning someone of a noble disposition. More so, with modern DNA studies we know that all of modern India are one people and the divisions were invented by the colonists.For a book on 'history', it is all about a biased rendition of religion.. and of course caste is mentioned as many times as possible in continuation of the Christian / colonist agenda of creating and exploiting fault-lines.Anyone in India will know that there are no fault-lines between Hindus and Buddhists.. but there is even an attempt to play up this as a fault line.Now, granted Larry is a comic and not a Historian.. so I went to his 'extensive source citations'. There were about 14. 2 by a die-hard communist, 10 by colonists and 2 generic works. None of these would have been any lay person's top history source books on India. At a minimum, he should have been pointed to more credible and authentic sources. Totally disappointing and a crying shame!

Cheap jokes making history a laughing stock for the future generation.

A brilliant book , educational well written and well illustrated , suitable for children and adults

Always funny and informative.

Colour more appreciative.

Among the comic strips for little ones and the graphic books (which are not 'comics' ... nothing comical in or about these) about well muscled super-heroes in tights for young readers in the US, this series is a gem. A class apart in style ... considering the content, especially. Again, in a country where ignorance is celebrated and knowledge is shunned (in general ... exceptions are there, of course), an overview of the vast history of humankind, in a palatable, interesting and humorous form, is a gem unlooked-for. As one critic said (and quoted somewhere on the book cover), it is better than most (all?!) school text books. And considering a comic strip, it has veritable gold mine of references of published history and research papers showing the fantastic effort and the extent of knowledge of the author.I would say it's the best gift that can be given to a school-age boy or girl (and any adult on any day). At a time of unrest and intolerance as the one we live in especially, a book like this that shows the connections and varieties human civilizations on different parts of the globe is a fantastic first step that can help one appreciate the variety and common grounds of humans all over the mother earth.

Loved it ! A must for anyone who would like to brush up his or her knowledge of history in a fun and very well-informed way.