America (The Book)

From Freepedia

Image:AmericaTheBook.jpg 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.

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."

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" [of naked Supreme Court justices]. 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 lifted the next day after the library board received complaints, so for the time the book was banned, most of the affected libraries were not even open. [1] 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.

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

Study Guide
Foreword: by Thomas Jefferson
Ch. 1: Democracy Before America
Ch. 2: The Founding of America
Ch. 3: The President: King of Democracy
Ch. 4: Congress: Quagmire of Freedom
Ch. 5: The Judicial Branch: It Rules
Ch. 6: Campaigns and Elections: America Changes the Sheets
Ch. 7: The Media: Democracy's Valiant Vulgarians
Ch. 8: The Future of Democracy: Four Score and Seven Years from Now
Ch. 9: The Rest of the World: International House of Horrors
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Credits
Election 2004 (bonus section not listed in Table of Contents and not included in post-election printings)