America (The Book)

A fake civics textbook that is also a real civics lesson. Stewart and the Daily Show writing staff dismantle the mythology of American democracy using the exact form they're parodying — complete with fake photographs, fake Supreme Court Justice centerfolds, fake exercises, fake teacher's editions — to make the argument that the official account of how American democracy works is itself a kind of satire. The joke is that the parody is more accurate than the original. Published in 2004 when The Daily Show was at its peak as a political institution — the moment when comedy news became the most trusted source of political information for a generation, which is either a triumph of satire or an indictment of journalism, and probably both. The most accessible introduction to American political satire as a genre and the most entertaining civics lesson available.