Some absolutely hilarious sections and some I mostly just scanned, but overall a really funny read. I liked the chronological format so the story of US history wasn't a scatter shot jumping one time period to another.

This was somewhat amusing but not really my cup of tea. I found myself much more into it when I first started reading it. As I continued to read, it seemed to strike me as less amusing and more of a chore to read. I think this is a bit of a stretch for a full book.

Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) is an absolute delight to read. In this hilarious and irreverent collection, Petri takes on some of the most significant moments in American history and turns them on their head, creating her own zany versions of important documents like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and more. Whether she's imagining what the Bill of Rights might look like if it were written by a bunch of toddlers, or coming up with a new Pledge of Allegiance that includes a clause about pizza, her imagination is boundless, and her humor is infectious.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Oh no I should not have picked this up, I think my interest in historical humor books is a thing of the past. Has a real hashtag resistance older millennial vibe. I DNF.

I'm not sure who this book is written for. I love the premise, and the author clearly put a lot of effort into writing it but the humor laid over the history feels a bit forced. Perhaps there are people out there who are history buffs and find the idea of spoofing history a nice change of pace, but I don't think the execution really worked for me.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher W. W. Norton & Company for an advanced copy of this book that looks at momentous events in American history, and bravely and humorously fills in the facts that were never taught in school, mainly because this book is not true.

The problem with being a humorist in America is that satire is not only dead, but satire has taken off the newspapers, the op-ed pages, and replaced serious politicians with, well look at Congress. What used to be a good headline for The Onion is now a New York Times thought piece, or a Substack subscription. Meanwhile professional comedian are denied jokes about different races, women, LGBQT, and are finding that maybe they weren't that funny to begin with, and are just too lazy to get new material. Thank goodness for history, since so many states are banning it in schools, history is wide open for parody. And thank you Alexandra Petri for being so darn good at making people laugh. Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) is a look at history an all those little bits of paper and stories that didn't make the main books of history, featuring important events, literature and a lot more.

The book tells the history of the United States from the beginning with essays featuring information, thoughts, conversations and reinterpretation of real events. The essays range in length, but all of them share something in common and that is they are really kind of funny. The book begins with a survey for the Pilgrims about their faith. The sexting history of the Adam and Eve of American Presidents John and Abigail Adams are disclosed. The plan for the Federalist Papers are laid out in full, along with some words from Seneca Falls that somehow were misplaced. In literature we have a Herman Melville in conversation with his editors, Emily Dickinson, and even history is not safe from a rewrite by Aaron Sorkin.

The book is funny, and what is rare today is smart funny. Most humor today is like the worst sitcoms of the 1990's obvious, lacking in effort, and even worse forgettable. Petri has a real gift with words, and especially puns. Some jokes are real barbs, delivered so well it is not until a few sentences later a reader goes, ohh snap, I see what Petri did there. Some of the jokes won't be for everyone. And it does help if one is at least familiar with say the difference between the Declaration and the Constitution. However for a nerd who loves history and a person who loves books, and oddly enough likes laughing, I really loved this book.

Alexandra Petri writes for the Washington Post and is one of the high spots of the paper. Numerous essays that I have read by Petri have made me laugh out loud. This is a very good gift for people who like history, and I would recommend Petri's first book A Field Guide to Awkward Silence also, as I enjoyed it also, and pushed it on numerous people to read. This would be a great book for Mother's or Father's Day, especially if the Mother or Father like history. If they watch FOX or Newsmax and live in Florida also gift them this book, as they are obviously big fiction fans.

I love this book! Alexandra Petri applies her sometimes absurd wit to Emily Dickinson's dashes, the Oklahoma! exclamation point, and T.S. Eliot's cat poems, alongside historical events that show up in high school history textbooks today. I picked this book up whenever I needed a laugh.

Did I learn anything? I didn't learn any new US HIstory facts. But these days, I need to be reminded that the United States has always been complicated. It's not a recent development.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read an early copy for review!

This book truly made me laugh out loud! I love a good razzing of the white-washed American history and this does not disappoint. Her hysterical invented versions of history had me laughingly reading passages of it to my family and friends, especially those who have been, shall we say, traumatized by recent political happenings. That being said, toward the end, it did get a little tiresome and I was ready to be done. All in all though, I would recommend this and probably even give it as a gift!

What an amazingly funny, nerdy, historical book (in that order). I am always suspicious of how someone can legitimately turn history into a gut-buster but Petri provides the example that others should follow. If you're not at least giving an outloud chuckle to the Adams' long distance sexting, then I surely don't expect your to find humor in the Sesame Street version of D-Day.

I'd love to give some of the tamer ones to my students and see just how befuddled they get by them, for my own schadenfreude-ish motives.

My only suggestion would be to include some more recent history, but I understand the closer you get to contemporary times, the more likely you're going to be pissing someone off. The potential humor of George W. Bush, Trump, and Howard Dean would be worth it, though

I can say I always am aware of how great I consider a book by how I would imagine a sequel or follow-up. In this case, I hope there is a second semester.

If I'm scoring this according to College Bored (no typo there) rubrics, this gets a 5. Petri dominated the Long Essay Question.

Petri is an American treasure, this was so much fun. By turns hilarious and insightful, not every single joke landed, but there was so much evident thought and care into the book. Very funny and pointed.

What a fun book! This collection of missives & prompts was a true joy to read. Petri’s prose & form is both incredibly imaginative & just about perfectly edited (which makes this review all the more difficult to put down on paper!). I absolutely want pick up this fabulously creative writer’s back catalogue & hope her grammatically correct satirical talents will rub off on me (and every other person who reads/writes/hears via audiobooks?). That would be a fun trick for the next book (and no doubt she deserves it!).

But back to this baby (the book, not the baby the book is dedicated to — it’s A.P.’s U.S. History not A.P.’s History!): all the usual suspects are rounded up for Petri’s firing squad of ceaselessly joyful & resilient satirical whimsy (well, some of it bites the “bad” guys… but it’s a series of positive takes for the most part). It was a welcome surprise to see historical figures like journalist Nellie Bly write Yelp reviews; screenplays with the founding fathers; a minute man that’s more like a weekly (worrier) man; and to paraphrase one of my favorite parts (not sure if I can share the line), I won’t soon forget “men” who can only find molehills to fall on.

A definitive add to the cannon of modern political satire.

Additionally, I broke up reading this book with another collection of thoughts that’s about to come out & pairs well — The Ugly History Of Beautiful Things, an essay collection about the facts & false histories of beauty, by the equally talented Katy Kelleher (don’t you dare pit these women against each other — they both introduce readers to different worlds that are just as creative & just as warranted). Not sure if this could happen, but as writers with the same parent publishing house, both authors should absolutely have a joint signing/discussion. I would love to see how their opinions on breaking down the lines between what’s real & what’s fake; the history and present state of satire & lies — and how misconstrued opinions can turn into falsely held facts. Both books delved into the aesthetics & realities of history and how that diversion has impacted modern thought & current culture — who wouldn’t want to delve more into that!