America, the Book (English)

Pretty much the popular cable TV comedy show THE DAILY SHOW in handy book-length form, AMERICA (THE BOOK) loses none of the series' iconoclastic wit in translation. The program's sharply intelligent writing team deconstructs the United States' system of government in a series of chapters that expose the Supreme Court ("...nine feeble old people, up against Americans, the most litigious people on the planet..."), explains the role of the President ("King of Democracy"), and gives the media (ultimate goal: "...to raise the stock price of the media empire that owns them...") a good scourging; the rest of the world gets off somewhat more lightly, with a mere chapter devoted to what the writers dub the "International House of Horrors." Formatted as the kind of school textbook you'll realize you always wanted, AMERICA's humor isn't merely satirical, but, like the show that spawned it, frequently thought-provoking in its guilelessly witty representations of America's most cherished, and least understood, institutions. A comprehensive and in-depth examination of the American system of governance written by the kind of students who spent their time reading comic books inside their textbooks, AMERICA (THE BOOK) is an essential antidote to comprehending of the realities of modern democracy. minimize