Graphic Histories

This list was created in 2023 to highlight some favourite Graphic History titles that are suitable for summer reading!

Updated November 20, 2023
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Alexander Hamilton : the graphic history of an American founding father
Hennessey, Jonathan
Paper Book
A graphic novel biography of the American legend who inspired the hit Broadway musicalHamilton. Alexander Hamilton was one of the most influential figures in United States history-he fought in the Revolutionary War, helped develop the Constitution, and as the first...
Amazons, abolitionists, and activists : a graphic history of women's fight for their rights
Kendall, Mikki
Paper Book
A bold and gripping graphic history of the fight for women's rights by theNew York Timesbestselling author ofHood Feminism "A beautifully drawn, hold-no-punches, surprisingly deep dive through the history of women's rights around the world, which will entrance...
The Arab of the future : a graphic memoir : a childhood in the Middle East (1978-1984)
Sattouf, Riad
Paper Book
The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators--Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of...
The art of war
Sunzi
Paper Book
Like Machiavelli's The Prince and the Japanese Book of Five Rings, Sun Tzu's The Art of War is as timely for business people today as it was for military strategists in ancient China. Written in China more than 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu's classic The Art of War is the first known study of the...
The beats : a graphic history
Pekar, Harvey.
Paper Book
InThe Beats: A Graphic History, those who were mad to live have come back to life through artwork as vibrant as the Beat movement itself. Told by the comic legend Harvey Pekar, his frequent artistic collaborator Ed Piskor, and a range of artists and writers, including the feminist comic...
Berlin
Lutes, Jason
Paper Book
Berlin: City of Stones presents the first part of Jason Lutes' captivating trilogy, set in the twilight years of Germany's Weimar Republic. Kurt Severing, a journalist, and Marthe Muller, an art student, are the central figures in a broad cast of characters intertwined with the historical...
Canada at war : a graphic history of World War Two
Keery, Paul
Paper Book
A beautifully crafted graphic novel, tracing the achievements of the Canadian Forces in the Second World War. In 1914, Canada went to war as a subject of Britain. In 1939, it made the choice to fight all on its own.Canada at War follows the developments and setbacks, wins and losses, of a...
Canada at war : a graphic history of World War Two
Keery, Paul
Paper Book
A beautifully crafted graphic novel, tracing the achievements of the Canadian Forces in the Second World War. In 1914, Canada went to war as a subject of Britain. In 1939, it made the choice to fight all on its own.Canada at War follows the developments and setbacks, wins and losses, of a...
Days of destruction, days of revolt
Hedges, Chris
Paper Book
Two years ago, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges and award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco set out to take a look at the sacrifice zones, those areas in America that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement. They wanted to...
Escape to gold mountain : a graphic history of the Chinese in North America
Wong, David H. T.
Paper Book
Winner, Chinese American Library Association Best Book Award winner (Fiction) The history of Chinese immigration to Canada and the US over the past 100-plus years has been fraught with sadness and indignity; newcomers to North America encountered discrimination, subjugation, and...
The art of war
Sunzi
Paper Book
Like Machiavelli's The Prince and the Japanese Book of Five Rings, Sun Tzu's The Art of War is as timely for business people today as it was for military strategists in ancient China. Written in China more than 2,000 years ago, Sun Tzu's classic The Art of War is the first known study of the...
Louis Riel : a comic-strip biography
Brown, Chester
Paper Book
Martyr or Madman? The Passionate Rebel History Can't Close The Book On. Is this the future of comics? Respectably penning the dowdy pages of history? Don't be fooled. This is one of the hippest comics going and will be a controversial must-have in 2003. Legendary cartoonist...
Maus : a survivor's tale
Spiegelman, Art
Paper Book
The bestselling first installment of the graphic novel acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker) * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * One of Variety's...
Palestine
Sacco, Joe.
Paper Book
A single volume collection of the landmark novel by Joe Sacco, author of Safe In Goradze. Palestine was his first major comic work of political and historical non-fiction, and was based on several months research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s, where he...
A people's history of American empire : a graphic adaptation
Zinn, Howard
Paper Book
Adapted from the bestselling grassroots history of the United States, the story of America in the world, told in comics form Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies,...
POSTCARDS FROM CONGO: A GRAPHIC HISTORY
Trueman, Edmund.
Paper Book
The Democratic Republic of Congo, the second-largest country in Africa by area, has a fractured and bloody history, variously undone by decades of colonialism, civil war, corruption, and totalitarian rule. The country has played a crucial role in the economic growth of the Global North, but in doing...
Safe area Goraz?de : the war in eastern Bosnia 1992-95
Sacco, Joe
Paper Book
The winner of the 2001 Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Album. Sacco spent five months in Bosnia in 1996, immersing himself in the human side of life during wartime, researching stories that are rarely found in conventional news coverage, emerging with this...
Showa : a history of Japan
Mizuki, Shigeru
Paper Book
A fascinating period in Japanese history explored by a master of manga Showa 1926-1939: A History of Japan is the first volume of Shigeru Mizuki's meticulously researched historical portrait of twentieth-century Japan. This volume deals with the period...
Soviet daughter : a graphic revolution
Alekseyeva, Julia
Paper Book
This is the story of Julia Alekseyeva and her great-grandmother Lola. Born in 1910 to a poor, Jewish family outside of Kiev, Lola lived through the Bolshevik revolution, a horrifying civil war, Stalinist purges, and the Holocaust. She taught herself to read, and supported her extended family working...
War's end : profiles from Bosnia, 1995-96
Sacco, Joe
Paper Book
War cartoonist Joe Sacco visits the Bosnian conflict to uncover the stories that are often ignored or uncovered by traditional media. How does an artist reconcile being forced to go to the front line of a brutal conflict that will change his life and homeland forever? What...
Wobblies! : a graphic history of the Industrial Workers of the World
Buhle, Paul
Paper Book
The stories of the hard-rock miners' shooting wars, young Elizabeth Gurly Flynn (the "Rebel Girl" of contemporary sheet music), the first sit-down strikes and Free Speech fights, Emma Goldman and the struggle for birth control access, the Pageant for Paterson orchestrated in Madison Square Garden,...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.