America (The Book)

America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (ISBN 0446532681) is a 2004 humor book written and edited by Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin, David Javerbaum, and other writers of The Daily Show. Karlin is the show's executive producer and Javerbaum its head writer. The book is written as a parody of a U.S. high school civics textbook, complete with study guides, questions, and class exercises. Its inside front cover is even "stamped" with a template with the heading "THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF" and lines within a section marked "ISSUED TO" where the reader could write his or her name, the year, and the condition of the book when issued and when returned. The book even provides discussion questions to mock history study guide books, with ridiculous questions such as: "Would you rather be a king or slave? Why?" It pokes fun at the American political system, and includes a chapter caricaturing American views of the rest of the world.

Related Topics:
2004 - Book - Jon Stewart - Ben Karlin - David Javerbaum - The Daily Show - Executive producer - Parody - U.S. - High school - Civics - Textbook - American political system

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Appearing shortly before the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the book includes several pages of an "Election Guide" making fun of both candidates. Printings of the book made after the elections do not have this insert. Publishers Weekly (PW) chose it as its "Book of the Year"; it noted that "in a year defined by political polemics, it seems fitting that PW's Book of the Year be one in which the authors survey the entire political system and laugh." The audio book version won the Grammy Award in 2005 for "Best Comedy Album." It was also raved as "no other book has been more politically erect."

Related Topics:
2004 U.S. presidential election - Publishers Weekly - Polemic - Audio book - Grammy Award - Best Comedy Album

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The book, published in September 2004, remained a best seller even after the election, despite a decision by Wal-Mart to cancel its order because, as a spokewoman was quoted in USA Today: "We felt a majority of our customers would not be comfortable with the image" . The book was also banned from some Mississippi public libraries for its depictions of nude United States Supreme Court Justices (this prompted Stewart to jokingly ask "They have libraries in Mississippi?" on The Daily Show). The ban was later lifted after the library board received complaints. http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/10617771.htm Chapter 5 on the Judicial Branch includes obviously doctored photographs of the current justices, with their heads superimposed on appropriately aged naked bodies. On the page opposite the photographs, the reader is invited to "Restore their dignity" by covering each justice with a cutout of his or her robe.

Related Topics:
Wal-Mart - USA Today - Justices - Mississippi - Public libraries - United States Supreme Court - The Judicial Branch

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In addition to America (The Audiobook), it has also spun-off into America (The Calendar).

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