Dave Barry Slept Here

From Publishers Weekly Miami Herald syndicated columnist Barry here assembles a funny U.S. history replete with malapropisms (Ferdinard and Imelda of Spain financed Columbus), parodies ("This land is your land, / This land is my land, / Looks like one of us / Has a forged deed to the land."), literal-mindedness (President Monroe Doctrine) and, above all, anachronisms (the Wrights' first flight was canceled because of equipment problems at O'Hare). Several clever gags run through the book--one about the significant contributions of women and minorities (although none is ever detailed), another ascribing the date of every major event to October 8 (for ease in remembering) and a third featuring the Hawley-Smoot tariff, which had an immediate impact on the Great Depression. There are few heroes in Barry's pantheon, and only an occasional villain--principally Richard Nixon--while other widely admired figures, like Mark Twain and Winston Churchill, are given their lumps. Author tour. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal This book creates a serious problem--how to read it in public without laughing out loud. Barry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist from the Miami Herald , writes deft, gaily satirical comedy which always borders on the ridiculous and sometimes crosses that border. His idea of making humor out of many familiar events and notable figures in American history is appealingly audacious. Written in the form of a history text, with "questions" at the end of chapters, the book starts with the days when there were "no roads, no cities, no shopping malls, no Honda dealerships" and ends at the point of landing "a manned spacecraft on Trump"--the planet, of course. Ideal reading for gloomy afternoons and other times that require pleasant diversion. - A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Lib . & Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Inside Flap urns his formidable wit to the subject of American history, with a result reminiscent of the Reduced Shakespeare Company: The better you know the original, the funnier it gets." LOS ANGELES TIMESThis time Dave Barry's subject is history, the way it's never been told before. Every single momentous event and crucial moment is covered, including...The Birthing Contractions of a Nation; Kicking Some British Butt; The Fifties: Peace, Prosperity, Brain Death, right up through the scintillating Reagan-Bush years. If you love to laugh, and you love your country, this is the book you've been waiting for since 1776. Or at least since Super Bowl III. From the Trade Paperback edition. Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Miami Herald. He is the author of numerous bestsellers, including the recent Dave Barry in Cyberspace. He lives in Miami, Florida. From the Paperback edition. Read more