Comic History of the United States

Bill Nye ran the story of the American republic from Columbus to Reconstruction and refused to keep a straight face for any of it. Across thirty-one chapters he retells the familiar schoolbook narrative, the explorers and colonists, the Revolution, the Civil War, in deadpan asides, 1890s slang, and cheerful anachronism, while Frederick Burr Opper’s cartoons puncture whatever dignity the prose leaves standing. The preface, signed by both men, sets the terms: facts are the framework of history, not the drapery, and their object is to humanize our history and deal with people who ate and possibly drank, people who were born, flourished, and died. Published in 1894, it arrived when Nye was one of the most widely read newspaper humorists in America. Read it for the jokes. Notice how much real history survives them.