Subtitled “A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction”, this book is a dead-on spoof on a high school textbook complete with discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
Covering American politics and history, this book is absolutely hysterical. The writing is stellar, clear, and concise, and the book is filled with side-splitting commentary on everything — and everyone — in the American political scene.
“Do you know why we call them amendments? Because they amend! They fix mistakes or correct omissions and they themselves can be changed. If we had meant for the Constitution to be written in stone we would have written it in stone. Most things were written in stone back then, you know. I’m not trying to be difficult but it’s bothersome when you blame your own inflexibility and extremism on us. Not that we weren’t awesome. We wrote the constitution in the time it takes you nimrods to figure out which is the aye button and which is the nay.” (pg. x; Thomas Jefferson’s forward)
Despite it’s satire and comedy, America (The Book) has a fair amount of truth, and makes the American government all the more interesting. The graphics, and the pullout map on the structure of power in the US government, really add a new hysterical dimension to this comical tale.
Book Mentioned:
- Stewart, Jon. America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction. New York, NY: Warner Books, 2004. Print. 220 pgs. ISBN: 9780446532686. Source: Gift.
Ardent Reader 