Alexandra Petris US History, Alexandra Petri
Alexandra Petris US History, Alexandra Petri
1 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Alexandra Petri's US History
Important American Documents (I Made Up)

Author: Alexandra Petri

Narrator: Alexandra Petri

Unabridged: 6 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/29/2023


Synopsis

A witty, absurdist satire of the last 500 years, Alexandra Petri's US History is the fake textbook you never knew you needed!

Alexandra Petri's US History contains a lost (invented!) history of America. (A history for people disappointed that the only president whose weird sex letters we have is Warren G. Harding.) Petri's "historical fan fiction" draws on real events and completely absurd fabrications to create a laugh-out-loud, irreverent takedown of our nation's complicated past.

On Petri's deranged timeline, John and Abigail Adams try sexting, the March sisters from Little Women are sixty feet tall, and Susan Sontag goes to summer camp. Nearly eighty short, hilarious pieces span centuries of American history and culture. Nikola Tesla's friends stage an intervention when he falls in love with a pigeon. The characters from Sesame Street invade Normandy. And Mark Twain—who famously said reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated—offers a detailed account of his undeath, in which he becomes a zombie.

This side-splitting work of historical humor shows why Alexandra Petri has been hailed as a "genius," a "national treasure," and "one of the funniest writers alive."

About Alexandra Petri

Alexandra Petri is a humorist and columnist for the Washington Post and author of Alexandra Petri's US History and Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why, a Thurber Prize finalist. Her satire has also appeared in McSweeney's and the New Yorker's Daily Shouts and Murmurs. She lives in Washington DC.


Reviews

Reading this book in a library is a sure-fire way to get kicked out of said library. ... When I say that this book made me laugh, I mean it made me CACKLE... Loud, obnoxious cackling. Tears-in-my-eyes cackling. Somewhere between "How to Pose for Your Civil War Photo" and "Ernest Hemingway's The Great......more

Goodreads review by David

(Full disclosure:) As I have noted with very few other authors, I confess I am a fan of Alexandra Petri. Anything she writes is worth reading for me. Alexandra Petri’s US History is no exception. From George Washington to Donald Trump, it tags and warps notable Americans (in chronological order), in......more

Goodreads review by Renata

I'm a fan of Alexandra Petri's online humor, and these were all very funny little pieces. I think the effect kind of wanes as you read it, like, to me it's funnier in small doses and often I would end up skimming like "OK I get the joke." I feel like some of these might be very fun to use in high sc......more