A witty, absurdist satire of the last five hundred years, this is the fake textbook you never knew you needed! Alexandra Petri’s US History contains a lost (invented!) history of America. Petri’s “historical fan fiction” draws on real events and completely absurd fabrications to create a laugh-out-loud, irreverent takedown of our nation’s complicated past. On Petri’s deranged timeline, even Mark Twain—who famously said reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated—offers a detailed account of his undeath, in which he becomes a zombie. This side-splitting work of historical humor shows why Alexandra Petri has been hailed as a “genius,” a “national treasure,” and “one of the funniest writers alive.” 

Virtual: Free for members. Choose your own price for non-members. REGISTER HERE. 

Copies of Alexandra Petri’s US History are available for purchase through the Mark Twain Store; proceeds benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum. Books will be shipped after the event. We regret that we are NOT able to ship books outside the United States as it is cost-prohibitive to do so. 

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 About the Author: Alexandra Petri is a humorist and columnist for the Washington Post and author of Alexandra Petri’s US History and Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why, a Thurber Prize finalist. Her satire has also appeared in McSweeney’s and the New Yorker’s Daily Shouts and Murmurs. 

 About the Moderator: Mallory Howard is the Assistant Curator at The Mark Twain House & Museum. 

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Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from CT Humanities; the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts; Ensworth Charitable Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign; The Hartford; The Mark Twain Foundation; The National Endowment for the Humanities; and Travelers.