I am not sure if because I listened to this book it was a little hard to follow or if the book it's self is a little much in most areas. There were some funny parts but some were a little to much for me.

John Stewart, in his Daily Show tone, takes us on an irreverent tour of the inner workings of the US Government. A little history, a little political science, and a lot of snarky commentary comprise the majority of this book, which is formatted much like a high school textbook. After telling us the story of Greek Democracy, the Roman Forum, and the Magna Carta, John shows us how it all came together with the proverbial "Founding Fathers," who he notes, would be totally unelectable in this day and age (what with all their philandering, cavalier religious views, pock-marked faces and bad teeth and all...) and how they came up with the Declaration of Independence and Aricles of Confederation, the latter which was aptly replaced by the now-holy Constitution.

John spares no expense to identify the sharp contrast between the ideals expressed in these documents and the stark realities of a slave-holding, misogynistic, [insert trait here:]-ist world. He goes through each branch of the Government, examines how each has outgrown its stated responsibilities, and brings us to the present day, through sarcastic vignettes, ridiculous chapter recaps by Stephen Colbert, and outrageous "classroom activities."

Ultimately, though, John notes that if you think America is an awful place to live, then clearly you've lived nowhere else. For all its failures to live up to its ideology and principles, America is the best we've ever had.

The last segment of the book is a bit dated. It has a profile on George W. Bush and one on John Kerry. This section was clearly intended for a 2004 audience, but, from a 2009 Obama-anxious point of view, it's a rare glimpse in the zeitgeist of the previous election cycle.

This book, not to sound like one of those who constantly praise every book they read, was the funniest book I have ever read. And another plus to reading this book was that I felt smart doing so. I love political satyre especially from the mind of Jon Stewart. In the very beginning John or apparently the corpse of Thomas Jefferson writes a foreword to the book. My favorite line in the foreward was "Sally may not like it, but as we used to say in the back parlours of 18th-century Paris, 'tough titties' ." The quote is completely meaningless and irrelevant to the book but I guess I'm just immature in thinking such crude humor as... Humorous. In the middle of the book however, John makes a good observation of our congress "Lawmaking is tedious and never-ending. If not for the good salary and godlike sense of ultimate power it would hardly seem worth it." This makes me feel like I'm not alone when I concluded that "congressman are either okay or power-hungry belligerents," which made me feel comfortable lol (sorry it's too tempting to type like I would on a social netowrking site). Honestly, this book was named one of the worst books of the year in 2005 but I don't understand how you could give such a title to literature which is an art in itself so... I don't know, I think It's a great book, It takes about a week to read. It's very funny if you're not a conservative republican. Jonathan Stewart is a comedic genius and this is everything he doesn't dare to put out on the Daily Show. Pick it up... Read it.

This book is hilarious. I love that it’s formatted like a textbook. Also, the naked “pics” section of the Supreme Court justices is outrageous.

This is probably the best way to learn about the American political system. Three audio CDs in the car with Jon Stewart saying profanities. I laughed so hard on disk 2 track 12 that I had to try hard to see where I was driving.

This was pretty cute. I liked the "Earth" audiobook a bit better

A funny read for a little while. You really can not sit down and read it like a normal book or anything, so getting it from the library is kind of annoying. The humor kind of gets lost in the pages and your left with a nihilistic view on American politics (with no solutions :p) But I liked the general approach and ideas in the book.

Hilarious textbook style guide to American history and politics. Also includes 'rest of the world' section in the back (wayyy back lol). The graphics, polls, and sidebars really add to the experience. Just like reading a real textbook - only with satirical honesty and funny.

Very funny and satirical. As with all of Jon Stewart/The Daily Show humor, you have to know your facts in order to appreciate the humor.

I found the presentation in form of a school book, to be wonderful.

Over all, I enjoyed the book. I'm pretty good with the history being talked about and found the sarcasm right up my alley. My politics leans more towards Stewart's so that certainly helps. My biggest complaints are: I didn't find myself laughing as much as I thought I would. Perhaps because it's also a bit sad how things have ended up. It also felt a little like overload after a while. That is on me. I could have slowed the reading down.

Rating - 3.5

Bleh - as a fan of the Daily Show it becomes painfully obvious within two chapters that the sharp, witty delivery (it is the facial expressions) within TV does not translate well into the written word

The concept of mocking a textbook is novel however the content is particularly weak on substance & becomes frustrating on determining what is real/joke; Understand why it was in the $9.99 rack

Very funny!