Well, it's certainly different. The stories are wild and wacky but I don't think I'll be interested in reading them again.

Ha! This was a fun read! Lots of great tales one seldom or never hears about! Anyone interested in American history, and all it's nonsense, really has to read this book, it's a hoot!

I had to force myself to finish this book. It didn't seem to be very interesting to me with all of the absurd stories. I didn't enjoy this book or find it at all funny.

I received an ARC of this book from netgalley.

I love weird facts about things. This book was perfect for learning all the absurd bits I ever wanted to know about the US.

If you enjoy reading about odd and ridiculous events in history, then this is the book for you. Let's face it: the history we learn in school isn't exactly a barrel of laughs. All those events that happened throughout the centuries—while important to know about—are decidedly lacking in the humor department. This book has many funny anecdotes, but it's not exactly the sort of history that would find its way into a school textbook.

What you will find are stories about such notable moments as:

* The 14-year-old boy who made nitroglycerin in an improvised "lab", who eventually built a breeder reactor in his parent's backyard.

* Henry Heimlich's campaign to make the Heimlich maneuver the preferred way to save someone from choking to death, followed by his attempts to prove malaria could cure cancer... and Lyme disease... and AIDS.

* Harry Smolinski's attempt to create a flying car... using a Ford Pinto.* A cheese wheel that was gifted to Andrew Jackson, which was four feet in diameter, two feet thick, and weighed a whipping 1400 pounds.

* The Straw Hat Riots of 1922, which began because some men were absolute heathens and wore their straw hats past the acceptable dates of May 15th to September 15th.

Some of the stories were more interesting than others (as would be the case with any collection such as this), and I was aware of a few—such as the story of the "Radium Girls". I was in need of a light read, and this fit the bill nicely.

A quirky mix of facts of weird situations and occurrences. Absurd, is a good descriptive word in the title. The off-beat short entries are intriguing and sometimes outrageous.

Book received from NetGalley.

While I had heard of or read about quite a few of the overlooked parts of history in this book, there were still multiple that were new to me. Someone who isn't a history buff would definitely be in for a bit of a shock about the things that were mentioned in the book. Most of the people mentioned in here are not history's best and brightest and for the ones that are more widely known historical figures, it makes you wonder what they were thinking. I will be getting a copy of this for my own shelves.

I chose this book based on the description as obscure history fascinates me, but humor is a subjective thing and I did not know their podcast. I was expecting odd points of history, a belief supported by the warning in the beginning of the book. This is more the train wrecks of U.S. history or the Guinness Book of Weird History. Entertaining, but some are more don't want to look and used to provoke laughs through making light of dark events along the lines of "too stupid for crime" rather than educating through humor. This is not my type of comedy and made many of the stories chosen hard to read. It also makes the book inappropriate for small children based on the language and contents.

That said, there are a scattering of the interesting/educational stories such as the history behind the Heimlich Maneuver and the fact that it has been largely debunked as a technique so that even the Red Cross recommends a back slap first for choking instead. The one about tuberculosis superstitions is also interesting for what it says about the culture of that time.

The end note, much better than the beginning, reveals the true purpose of the book. It's designed to amuse and disturb more than educate, and did succeed in that endeavor, much to my disappointment. If you like that kind of humor, this is the book for you, but be prepared because it comes with all the downsides including sexism, mocking those with disabilities, and kicking people when they're down. It's the same motivation behind the "freak show" trend, which also gets a mention in these pages.

P.S. I received this title from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds put their podcast on the page in this amusing volume, with witty writing and delightful illustrations. While the stories are not as detailed as the podcast, there is still a great range of ridiculous and bizarre true stories from America's past. A great gift, especially for fans of the Dollop.

Really interesting book about strange events in history that most of us are completely unfamiliar with. A good read! History buffs should grab this one.

An outstanding and hilarious collection of true stories from American history. An adaptation of the popular podcast "The Dollop", hosts Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds bring the same witty banter to their book. I even could here their different voices in my head as I read. I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in history, comedy, or both.

I was surprised by how many subjects I already knew about. Not quite sure what that says about me. There was some I thought had to be totally made up but found out really did happen. The book has sarcastic humor and is definitely full of absurd but true stories

THE UNITED STATES OF ABSURDITY: UNTOLD STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY
Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds
Ten Speed Press, 2017, 144 pages
★★★

The United States of Absurdity is a mix of the rapid-fire wit and non-sequiturs of Car Talk, the bad boy flippancy of Howard Stern, and offbeat history. Its authors, Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds, are stand-up comedians that host a Los Angeles-based podcast called The Dollop, from whence much of the material in this book derives. Their collection of bizarre episodes from the past is analogous to offerings such as Strange History (2016), The Weird and Mysterious United States (2016), and America's Strange History (2014). Ultimately, such outré agglomerations of factoids draw their inspiration from the phenomenal success of the Kenneth Davis' Don't Know Much About History franchise and James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me blockbuster. Anthony and Reynolds add something those other titles lack: running commentary that's frequently outlandish, bawdy, scatological, and filled with expletives. It's not, however, suitable for classroom use.

The book is divided into somewhat arbitrary categories—Great American Characters, Medical Breakthroughs, Best of American Sports, When Americans Go Wrong, Very Bad American Ideas, and American Tails—with short vignettes within each. We get freak show stars such as Grady F. Stiles, Jr. (1937-92), the "Lobster Boy," who was born with claw-like appendages (ectrodactyly). Stiles grew drunkenly despondent when neither of his wives birthed a similarly endowed heir and eventually murdered his daughter's fiancé. We are also treated Mike the Chicken, a fowl that was beheaded in 1945 but avoided the stewpot and lived for another two years on the stage. One of the more appalling characters in the book is Ervin Arnold. Between 1919 and 1921, this Newport-based sailor convinced authorities to help him ferret out gay sailors by using (allegedly) straight sailors to have sex with them. The ensuing scandal led Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt to resign, lest it ruin his political ambitions.

Especially noteworthy is how the authors reveal the darker sides of famous people. Who hasn't heard of the Heimlich maneuver? Did you know that Heimlich was also a quack that claimed he could cure cancer or AIDS by inducing malaria in patients? Even more horrifying were the misapplications of a procedure invented by Dr. Walter F. Freeman: the lobotomy. For skin-crawling creepiness, few have abused science like Dr. John Lilly, a drug-addled lunatic who once told his wife that aliens abducted him, removed his penis, and handed it to him. When told his organ was still intact, he insisted it was a mechanical substitution. Well who wouldn't allow such a man to conduct an experiment (1965) aimed at decoding dolphin communication by having a woman live with and sexually stimulate a cetacean?

To say this book strolls on the bizarre side understates. Remember the guy (Rollen Stewart) with the rainbow Afro that used to troll TV cameras and flash a John 3:16 sign? Did you know he's serving life for kidnapping? Do you recall the Ford Pinto? In 1973 it was used as a flying car prototype and proved even less airworthy than road-ready. Are you aware that former baseball star Lenny Dykstra was a low-life huckster? Or that an unexplained "meat" shower fell upon Kentucky in 1876? (One theory is that it was vomit from a flock of vultures caught in a storm!)

Not all of the authors' "untold stories" pass muster. Dr. John Brinkley of goat gland transplant infamy has been the subject of books and a documentary, the 1974 Cleveland Indians ten-cent beer night riot is well-documented, and loads of people know about the 1970 White House encounter between Nixon and Elvis. Still, most of the stuff in this book is unorthodox fodder from which skilled teachers can fashion fun learn exercises.

This is the kind of book from which I would have read to classes as a change of pace in my high school teaching days. That is, had it been written in appropriate language. One gets the sense that Anthony and Reynolds are hamming it up for those who are already fans of their shtick. Things that work on a comedy stage or podcast often come across as sophomoric on the page. They tell of Dykstra's attempt to curry favor with teammates by farting at a table full of priests thusly: "Then they were all, 'Oh yeah, he's awesome (loc. 316).'" They seldom shy from the tawdry and cheap. They make lots of (too) easy sex jokes in discussing Ervin Arnold's homosexual witch-hunt: "…his investigation consisted of sending straight men to be gay with gay men. Yes, this was a good plan and absolutely not gay (loc. 861)." They conclude with, "Arnold eventually left the Navy. He was never punished. (But ooooohhh how he wanted it be…) (loc. 882)." There is an ongoing joke of "God we love alcohol" and lots of F-bombs. Typical is a toss-away line in the story of Leonard Borchardt (1882-1923), who allowed himself to be covered in tar and horsehair to pass as the savage Oofty Goofy: "He said yes before he knew what he was supposed to do. That's what we call a massive fuck-up (loc.337)."

All of this makes The United States of Absurdity equal parts fascination, revelation, puerile, and juvenile. As much as I admired a break from the turgidity of scholarly prose, I yearned for less obvious and broad humor, as well as less structural randomness. Anthony and Reynolds play loose with chronology, eschew any semblance of historical significance, and opt instead for "Fun Facts." I'm all for making education more fun—as long as it does, in fact educate. Mine this book, but please don't assign it—unless you want to leave teaching for stand-up.

Robert E. Weir
University of Massachusetts Amherst

If you are in the mood for a good laugh and a look at America’s oddest history then this is the book for you. Anthony and Reynolds did a hilarious job at revealing these ridiculous and disturbing stories about America’s past. How did people allow these things to happen? Who knows. I wasn’t aware of the majority of the stories and seeing them for the first time was extremely jarring. Too many “what in the world” moments to name. This is an easy to read book and I had fun while doing. It doesn’t take itself serious because it’s hard to take anything in this book seriously. The authors do make a great point though: it’s good to know where you’ve been so you don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Here’s to hoping no one ever does any of this dumb stuff again.

If you do not listen to The Dollop which purports to be a American History podcast, this book will give you an adequate sample of Anthony and Reynold's quirky sense of history. What they seek out are the bits of American history most people do not learn about in school. Now, most folks do learn that George Washington was bled to death by his doctors, but how many know about Elvis and Nixon, or the Kentucky Meat Shower (not to mention that Kentucky has a University of Transylvania)? Then there is the tale of Michael Malloy and his death which I had heard about on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me, well they told me anyway! Besides characters, there are medical "breakthroughs", sports stories, and bad ideas that were tried. There are likely to be something to offend and something to tickle your funny bone in this volume. Plus, it is a fast read.

This counts as a welcome addition to the list of trivia/toilet-reading books out there. Yes it is, as the title suggests, uniquely America-centric, and yes the chatty, one-note jovial style grates after a while, but it was pretty interesting, and almost exclusively had information new to me. Therefore the biggest flaw perhaps is that it could have been longer.

It's all in the title with this book. It is absurd and delightfully so. I am a longtime fan of The Dollop podcast and the two comedians who wrote this book. Their voices shone through the stories of this book, some that they have discussed before but others that they haven't--and I hope they will in the future. It's a rambunctious, quick read that makes you smile while shaking your head in amused disapproval. Favorite topics of mine include Rube Waddell, Jackson Cheese, Radium Girls, and Mike the Chicken. Ten-Cent Beer Night though has always had a special place in my heart and it is my all-time favorite from the book.

The art featured in the book is spectacular. I have the Kindle edition but am ordering a hard copy because the art is so enjoyable and well-done that Kindle doesn't do it justice. Favorite images of mine include Rainbow Man, The Straw Hat Riot, The Vampire Panic, and Kentucky Meat Shower. If I had to pick one favorite, it would be The Flying Pinto. I would honestly display a poster of that one and I think anyone who ever has ridden in a Pinto (and lived to tell the tale) would enjoy it.

There is legitimate history to be learned here, it's not just goofy jokes. I have a Bachelors degree in history and there were still surprises in here. The short 'fun fact' sections at the end of each story were really great. I'd highly recommend it to Dollop fans, comedy fans, history fans, or anywhere in between. It was a quick read, easy to pick up and put down, and podcast fans will take special delight in some inside jokes that had me smiling. I really enjoyed it.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition via NetGalley for an honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Ten Speed Press and the authors Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds for the opportunity to do so.

This is a book indistinguishable from the Ripley's Believe It or Not series of the 1930s which were widely reprinted in the 1960s as kids books. Suitable only for the guest bathroom.

This book is one that I thought I would skim through and look at but I ended up reading it cover to cover and giggling aloud the whole time. I love the vernacular of the author and the silly stories included inside.

The United States of Absurdity: Untold Stories from American History by Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds, with a forward by Patton Oswalt, is currently scheduled for release on May 9 2017. From the creators of the comedy/history podcast "The Dollop," this book presents short but informative stories of the most outlandish (but true) people, events, and more from United States history. Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds cover the weird stories you didn't learn in history class, such as 10-Cent Beer Night, the Jackson Cheese, and the Kentucky Meat Shower, each accompanied by a full-page illustration that brings these historical "milestones" to life in full-color. Each story is accompanied by tongue-in-cheek trivia and timelines that help place the stories in context with the more well-known historical events that occurred around them.

The United States of Absurdity: Untold Stories from American History was a entertaining and informative read. While I had heard some of the stories before, such as the radium girls and Kentucky meat shower, some were new to me. Each story was short and offered some commentary on the intelligence (or lack there of) of those making decisions. Occasional the humorous commentary got a little profane, so those not interested in that style of humor might want to skip it. However, fans of the podcast or that have seen anything from the writers involved will not be surprised. It did catch me by surprise at first, but fit in with the stories and humor well so was not an issue once I got accustomed to it. Readers that will be too bothered by swearing, jokes about male anatomy, or intelligence levels in our country will want to skip it- but everyone else will laugh and learn at least a little. The short bits of history are organized by commonalities, and make for fun short reads.

The United States of Absurdity: Untold Stories from American History is a fun read for fans of The Dollop podcast, as well as those that enjoy learning about the more unusual bits of history. I normally get this tidbits from History's Mysteries, Mysteries at the Museum, and similar shows- but now I know I need to be listening to this podcast too. If history and humor tied together makes you happy, so will this unique look at American history.