America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't [Hardcover]

Stephen Colbert (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 2, 2012

Book store nation, in the history of mankind there has never been a greater country than America. You could say we're the #1 nation at being the best at greatness.

But as perfect as America is in every single way, America is broken! And we can't exchange it because we're 236 years past the 30-day return window. Look around--we don't make anything anymore, we've mortgaged our future to China, and the Apologist-in-Chief goes on world tours just to bow before foreign leaders. Worse, the L.A. Four Seasons Hotel doesn't even have a dedicated phone button for the Spa. You have to dial an extension! Where did we lose our way?!

It's high time we restored America to the greatness it never lost!

Luckily, AMERICA AGAIN will singlebookedly pull this country back from the brink. It features everything from chapters, to page numbers, to fonts. Covering subject's ranging from healthcare ("I shudder to think where we'd be without the wide variety of prescription drugs to treat our maladies, such as think-shuddering") to the economy ("Life is giving us lemons, and we're shipping them to the Chinese to make our lemon-flavored leadonade") to food ("Feel free to deep fry this book-it's a rich source of fiber"), Stephen gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on track.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2012: Elections aren’t really a laughing matter--not usually. But America Again seeks to change that. Following up on 2007’s best-selling I Am America (And So Can You!), the writing team behind The Colbert Report delivers an election-time parody that employs the cocksure, egotistical voice of “Stephen Colbert” to inform readers about how our country is “Americeptional” in a wide range of subjects: like healthcare, Wall Street, energy, and, of course, elections. Depending on your political bent, you'll rank this book anywhere from amusing to downright hilarious. There are jokes galore. And it even comes with 3-D glasses. --Chris Schluep

About the Author

Stephen Colbert was The Daily Show's longest-running and most diverse correspondent. His personality, insight and overall rightness could only lead to The Colbert Report, a half-hour nightly platform for him to give his take on the issues of the day, and, more importantly, to tell you why everyone else's take is just plain wrong. The show has been hugely successful.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; First Edition edition (October 2, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446583979
• ISBN-13: 978-0446583978
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 7.5 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (256 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Political
  • #63 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Satire
  • #65 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Humor

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

152 of 159 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Wit - October 5, 2012

By Loyd E. Eskildson HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

Stephen Colbert could be standing in the middle of the Sahara and find something funny about every grain of sand - it's non-stop with him in this book, even more so than his nightly program. His thesis here is that as perfect as America is in every possible way, our country is broken! And we can't exchange it because we're way past the 30-day return window. We don't make anything anymore and we've mortgaged our future to China. 'America Again' provides readers with the Truth we need to get back on the right track that we're already on.

Unfortunately, per Colbert, mere ownership of the book constitutes a non-disclosure agreement not to share the contents with anyone. The book is to be purchased only at full price, and if taken out of a library, the borrower is immediately to call the library, pretend to have lost it, and offer to pay for the copy.

I've often wondered about the numerous claims of 'American exceptionalism.' Colbert clears that up using a quote from Newt Gingrich. "America's exceptional greatness . . . (is) the result of American Exceptionalism.' I really liked getting that cleared up.

Colbert credits our growing into an agricultural power to our Unpaid African Internship Program.' 'We've defeated the Native Americans, the Nazis, and even the metric system' - I particularly appreciate the latter.

Colbert even provides readers with insightful economic philosophy via his parable of "The Aynt and the Grasshopper.' According to Colbert, the ant took what he wanted and did not apologize for his success, while the grasshopper fiddled. When Winter came, the ant heard a knock at his door - the grasshopper was pleading for food. They were then both crushed by the foot of Ayn Rand because the way all the ants worked together in their colony reminded her of Socialism.

Example of the Protestant work ethic - Martin Luther's posting 95 Theses on the door of the local Catholic church. Colbert points out that most of us would have stopped at 12 or so theses, but not Martin. He labored on and on - even without Wikipedia to explain phrases like 'plenary indulgences,' or Spell Check.

His chapter titled 'Healthcare,' appropriately has a $50 co-pay and points out that one of the reasons our healthcare is the world's best is because it is exclusive, with comprehensive care reserved for the elite. On energy, 'we need to stop listening to liberal environmentalists and get that oil out from under the ocean - our children swim there!'

'America Again' doesn't lack for solutions, either. In his 'Easy Solutions,' he suggests retracing our steps to where we last saw our thriving economy, spicing up one of our clunker states (eg. new windows and rat traps) before selling it to a Saudi Prince, limiting maternity leaves to 15 minutes, and singing the National Anthem twice before football games.

My suggestion - read 'American Again' slowly, for full comprehension and appreciation.

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Somehow, Colbert delivers another book of wisdom and genius October 5, 2012

By Joshua Mauthe

Format:Hardcover

Writing a comedy book is hard under even the best circumstances. Comedy is so much about timing and intonation, and none of that comes through on the written page. And making comedy work when you're putting on a persona can be even harder - how can you remind people that you're winking from behind the character, or that maybe you're not entirely serious about it all? And yet, here's America Again, the second book from Stephen Colbert in character as his gleefully conservative, insanely rich, condescending persona from The Colbert Report, and I'll be damned if he doesn't pull it off for a second time. I absolutely loved I Am America (And So Can You), but America Again may be even better, given how it's focused itself on the current economic situation and offers advice on what America is doing well (just about everything) and the problems with it (mainly regular people). America Again is one of those books that I almost hated to read in public, because with all the time I spent giggling and cracking up, I'm sure I looked like a moron to people around me. But it's all but impossible not to laugh on just about every page of this, from the odd footnotes to the numerous "regular" voices in the book to the gloriously insane methods to help people with things like insurance forms and resume work. Trying to explain just about any of the jokes or commentary here is a losing battle in this small space; suffice to say this is a book that ends with a chapter in which Colbert has transcribed his increasingly drunken celebration that the book is done, complete with doodles of everything from his book to the Statue of Liberty, all with massive breasts attached. And that's not even the weirdest parts of the book. If you're a fan of Colbert and his show, America Again doesn't disappoint in the least. In fact, it may even be better than Colbert's first book - and that's really high praise coming from me.

69 of 78 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy Kindle version until reconfigured October 16, 2012

By F. Korengel

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was so excited to buy this book, I downloaded it to my Kindle the first day. I should've realized there was an issue when there was no pre-order available for Kindle before release. This is a mixed media book. There are 3D images that don't appear in 3D, but as two pages on your Kindle. There are footnotes and other small print that you CANNOT zoom in on. As much as I love the humor of Stephen Colbert, I am marking this down because it is not formatted correctly for Kindle users. Buy a hard copy if you can't wait.