I really can't believe no one has reviewed this book yet. I work at a bookstore and picked this up after flipping through a couple of random chapters. If only textbooks were this amusing the world would be a much better place, believe me. I'm 35 and found myself cracking up at the jokes yet strangely dredging up all these facts and tidbits I thought had seeped out with time. Guess some of that stuff sticks around in the old grey matter somewhere. The book seems geared toward young adults and teens but I think anyone with half a sense of humor would appreciate it, from teens all the way up. The Smart Aleck's Guide is short and to the point, touching on only the most important (or ridiculous) aspects of American History, and I certainly wouldn't rely on it to get me through college. How much could they cram into one book, though, seriously? Where textbooks fail and this achieves, for me anyway, is spark some new or long forgotten interest in the history of us as a people and our beloved yet not-perfect nation. This is done with brief yet informative chapters, sidebars and footnotes, and a helluva lot more fart jokes. My personal favorite has to be the wealth of paintings and photographs we've all seen before, yet with laugh-out loud captions by some Smart-Aleck (check out the pants on the guys on the back of the two-dollar bill sometime). Anyway, I'd highly recommend this book to any parents with young adults, teens, or some 90 year-old coot wanting to brush up on his/her history. I can only hope the Smart Alecks continue what they started and come up with more volumes to add to this. There's a lot of history out there, and a lot more jokes to be had at the expense of some centuries-long dead guy. Trust me, they won't care.
