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Mass Historia: 365 Days of Historical Facts and (Mostly) Fictions
Mass Historia 365 Days of Historical Facts and Fictions - Mostly
Author: Chris Regan
You can't change the past, but with Mass Historia, Chris Regan has done a very fine job of making fun of it." --Stephen ColbertThe History Channel meets Comedy Central in this sidesplitting, quasi-historical almanac by Chris Regan, a five time Emmy award winning comedy writer and one of the coauthors of Jon Stewart's bestselling America (The ...  more ».Regan flips through our nation's historical calendar to offer up unknown, unrepentant, and often-unbelievable facts for every day of the year. Based on genuine, historical occurrences, Regan sets out to rewrite history with his unique satirical voice.As Regan explains, "Enjoy this book, learn something from it, but do not reference it in any scholarly paper." Consider entries like June 12th, 1991: "Russians elect Boris Yeltsin president. Yeltsin suggests a toast to Democracy, wakes up shoeless on a bus eight years later." Or Regan's entry for May 15th, 1718: "A London Lawyer named James Puckle patents the world's first machine gun, because lawyering was not doing enough to crush the soul of mankind." The reader will also learn about the November 11th, 1918 birth of "Armistice Day, which was later changed to Veterans' Day, so that Americans could more easily pronounce what they annually ignored."Full-color photographs, along with amusing sidebars, lists, and mock historical images aid in providing definitive answers to historical curiosities such as, "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" or the similarities between music moguls Kevin Federline and Johann Sebastian Bach. Readers will even discover that Alexander G. Bell's famous cry of, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you," during the first telephone conversation was, in fact, the invention of the Booty Call.
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ISBN-13: 9780740768699
ISBN-10: 0740768697
Publication Date: 8/1/2008
Pages: 256
Rating:
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
 3

3.3 stars, based on 3 ratings
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
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reviewed Mass Historia: 365 Days of Historical Facts and (Mostly) Fictions on + 2 more book reviews
If you enjoy laughing at the pain and misery of others (and who doesnt) this book is for you. "Mass Historia" is a pretty funny look at the past. There are a number of interesting facts hidden inside the humor so if youre not careful you might learn something before youre done. Written by one of the writers of the Daily Shows "America (The Book)" and contains the same type of humor.

The book gives one or more historical events for every day of the year. In addition to the historical event there is a humorous made-up event or a humorous comment about the actual event. Some of the humor is laugh out loud funny, some is mildly amusing, and some I didn't really find all that funny. Occasionally a joke gets overplayed, like President Taft's large stature.


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