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|  | |  | | | The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) Teacher's Edition: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction | | | | | | | |
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| | Description | For everyone who was too cheap to buy the hardcover, the blockbuster, award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller is now in trade paperback-with a new introduction, fully updated, and with equally unsettling nude photos of the newest Supreme Court justices, and a text corrected by the most reputable college professor we could find/afford.Including:Historical inaccuracies, gross distortions, complete fabrications-corrected by real-life bearded college professor. | |
| | Product Details | | Author: | Jon Stewart | | Paperback: | 240 pages | | Publisher: | Grand Central Publishing | | Publication Date: | September 25, 2006 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0446691860 | | Product Length: | 8.25 inches | | Product Width: | 0.75 inches | | Product Height: | 10.25 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.85 pounds | | Package Length: | 10.2 inches | | Package Width: | 8.2 inches | | Package Height: | 0.7 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.9 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 680 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 680 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
540 of 585 found the following review helpful:
 Buoyantly profane, actually thoughtful, supremely funny Oct 14, 2004
By bensmomma
"bensmomma"
Jon Stewart and his Daily Show writers would have you believe this is humor masquerading as a "fake" civics textbook, but they undersell themselves. It's both funnier and smarter than that premise. It actually does spell out, chapter by chapter, the workings of the branches of government, the election process, and the role of journalism in creating and destroying all these (complete with in-class exercises and homework!)
If you're a fan of the show, you will enjoy listening to Stewart riff on journalism's loss of integrity, to Samantha Bee's apologetic asides about "do you mind if I tell you how we do it in Canada?", Ed Helms' presentation of his qualifications to be Supreme Court justice, etc. The book is, however, not just a rehash of pieces from the TV show; the book form allows the writers to make their favorite comedic jabs against our system's foibles with more historical and literary support. (Who knew, for example, the role that the rivalry between newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer played in instigating the Spanish-American war?)
Coming from any source but the Daily Show, this premise might have been tedious, but from this team it is consistently and hysterically funny. Free of the time and vocabulary limits of TV, they really cut loose. The seven-dirty-words-you-can't-say-on-television here are put to good use, amended by such popular modifiers as bat, horse, bull, and mother. So don't bring it home to the kiddos, or listen to the audiobook on your mini-van stereo, and avoid it altogether if you don't yourself throw a good hearty @*$%&% around every now and then. But remember the best, funniest lines about the preservation of democracy and repeat these lessons to your kids. It's funny and important stuff.
96 of 104 found the following review helpful:
Educational satire makes for lots of laughs! Sep 18, 2004
By Michael Drake
Jon Stewart and the crew have done it again with a hilarious, bitingly satirical, and often true take on America and our political system. A good amount of the book's commentary is well-founded and educational; I found many of its parts to be a good review of the material we've all undoubtedly forgotten since government class (important court cases, etc.). But on occassion, I've remembered so little of actual political history that the line between the jokes and reality are blurred to the point that I don't know what is real and what isn't.
I've found myself smiling and laughing out loud through entire chapters, and the supplemental material sections (interspersed throughout the book) are hilarious. "Discussion Questions" and "Classroom Activities" start and end each chapter with additional laughs, and the opinion essays are unbelievably funny. This is a must read for every American or anyone who loves a good laugh.
107 of 119 found the following review helpful:
Funny (period) Oct 17, 2004
By G Mason
This is Jon Stewart at his best. And let's be honest, folks, he rips both sides of the aisle in this mock-textbook of American history. Man, how I wish this was my history book back in high school. I would've studied then. So there's truth here, as well as good political humor. And a clever pull-out poster comes with it on the shadow democracy we have. Now, who can say that doesn't bear some truth!
115 of 129 found the following review helpful:
 Take My Government, Please!...ba-bum-bum Sep 20, 2004
By Ed Uyeshima
This book may not be the most incisive in its examination of the performance of the Bush administration, but it sure is the funniest. We are talking laugh-out-loud funny, not the bemused chuckling of Maureen Dowd's "Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk" or the laughter-through-fears treatment of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11". But Bush is hardly the only target in this consistently clever, brightly illustrated book. This may very well be the textbook you wish you had while you were pretending to listen to your civics teacher in high school. Even if you don't get the Comedy Central cable channel and watch the "Daily Show", you can still enjoy this book for its shamelessly funny but sadly accurate observations of our government at work. However, if you have seen the clever antics of Jon Stewart and his crew, you know what you're in for, and you won't be disappointed. All you miss with the book is the clever editing of TV news clips, press conferences and convention speeches, which they love to skewer.
Any cynical thought you have had about government bureaucracy and the execution of democratic principles will be supported wholeheartedly here. The writers go as far as illustrating the timeline for democracy from its supposed birth in prehistoric times through the lightning-striking Biblical period to early American history and then of course, to the current political landscape. It all has a strong Mel Brooksian feeling of Borscht Belt schtick and frat house humor topped off with some tasty zingers like "...it turns out if Betsy Ross was alive and sewing American flags today, she'd be a 13-year-old Laotian boy". By all means, get this book as we all need a good laugh considering the paucity of options we have come November. You may find something sadly ironic when you read it and absorb the abuses and absurdities built into our political processes and institutions. But then again, any book that introduces a potential Bush-Kerry boxing match as "The Thrilla in Vanilla" is aces with me.
76 of 85 found the following review helpful:
Oh, how we needed this! Sep 20, 2004
By Book Lover
I hold in my hands a copy of the book "America--the Book" by Jon Stewart. From his zany foreword by "Thomas Jefferson" that literally made me spit out my coffee...to his open letter to Sean Penn requesting he keep his opinions to himself (oh, it rings so true), he had me laughing every time I turned the page. What an absolute delight in the wake of such a controversial election year. If you think he is biased, think again--he rips EVERYONE apart in a clever way.
Make sure you check out the "voter registration form" on page 123. Actually, I could point you in the direction of many funny things, but there are too many to write about here. Buy it, buy it, buy it!
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