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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when explorers, presidents and national pride meet a humorist who refuses to keep a straight face?
In Comic History of the United States, Bill Nye takes the familiar schoolroom story and gives it a dry, teasing voice. Early explorers and the arrival of Europeans lead into the founding of the colonies. The outline stays familiar, but jokes take priority over careful detail.
As the story moves through the Revolution, the young republic and the nineteenth century, Nye follows the country's growth, wars and political quarrels. His affection comes with doubt and laughter. This is history seen through the eyes of an American of the 1890s, alert to human folly.
What you’ll discover
- The textbook turned sideways Revisit explorers, colonies and presidents through jokes that make the familiar story feel less solemn.
- A dry comic voice Meet Bill Nye's newspaper wit, where a teasing tone matters more than textbook detail.
- People behind national history Follow a nation's struggles and successes with human folly kept firmly in view.
- Affection mixed with doubt Discover a view of America that makes room for both fondness and laughter.
- A memorable historical outline Trace the country's growth through a comic retelling designed to stick in the mind.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy dry wit, mock-solemn narrators, quick tours of American events, and a humorist poking fun at kings, generals and himself.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Real history wears a comic disguise
- Discovery begins with a money problem
- Colonial courage comes with human costs
- Freedom of conscience needs defending
- War reveals the colonists’ growing strength
- Revolution tests endurance beyond the jokes
- The republic moves from crisis to crisis
- Civil war changes the comic voice
- Laughter never removes the real history
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- Large print hardcover
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Comic History of the United States in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Comic History of the United States
by Bill Nye · 1894
Columbus gets his funding from a queen who pawns a brooch, and a king who owes his hired girl three weeks of pay.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
Picture a queen at twilight, crochet work in her lap, listening as her confessor reads a letter. The letter says a monastery houseguest's trade is discovery, and everything he has discovered has stayed discovered.
Comic History of the United States at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 30 min2 h 45 min fast, 4 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 50,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1894by Bill Nye
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Facts need clothing before they meet the public
Nye opens with a joke about children. Facts, he says, are no more guilty for being born bare than a healthy baby is guilty of a crime. The grown-ups must dress them in attractive clothes as soon as possible.
Nye and Opper plan to wrap true facts in sweet language and the artist's embroidery. History, for Nye, should deal with people who ate, were born, flourished and died, and not with solemn tragedians posing for photographs. So Washington gets large feet, and Hudson rides a Sixth Avenue elevated train.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1894
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Nye, Bill. Comic History of the United States. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/comic-history-of-the-united-states.
Nye, B. (2026). Comic history of the United States. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/comic-history-of-the-united-states (Original work published 1894)
Nye, Bill. Comic History of the United States. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/comic-history-of-the-united-states.
@book{nye2026comic,
author = {Nye, Bill},
title = {Comic History of the United States},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/comic-history-of-the-united-states},
note = {First published 1894}
}
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What is Comic History of the United States about?
It tells the story of the United States from Columbus in 1492 to the early 1890s, using real events and people but dressing them in jokes, invented dialogue and mock-serious commentary.
Who wrote Comic History of the United States and who drew the pictures?
Bill Nye, a humorist and newspaper writer, wrote the text, and the cartoonist Fred Opper drew the illustrations. The two share the short preface that explains their plan.
Is Comic History of the United States a true history?
The framework of events, people and dates is real, from Jamestown to Appomattox, but Nye adds invented speech, anachronisms and exaggeration for comic effect, so it reads as a humorous retelling and not a scholarly account.
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