SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups

Comedian Helms debuts with an informative and amusing survey of the American government’s wildest mistakes. Adapted from Helms’s podcast of the same name, the book sorts errors into eras, beginning with the 1950s and ending in 2021. Some of the SNAFUs are well-known, like the CIA’s MKUltra program (“the Greatest Generation’s own twisted version of ‘fuck around and find out’ ”). Others are relatively unknown and startlingly weird, like scientists’ ill-fated attempt to nuke a portion of the moon in a show of dominance over Soviet Union space pioneers (the plan was abandoned when it was pointed out that the moon would just become a dust cloud—“So anticlimactic”). And some SNAFUs are just unsettling, like multiple attempts made at surveillance by attaching cameras or listening devices to common animals, such as cats and pigeons. With his wry intelligence, Helms makes an ideal guide through these historical blunders; one can picture him in his former role as a Daily Show correspondent, with his eyebrow always raised in conspiratorial disbelief. Bracingly, the book constitutes a call for optimism in the face of the world’s apparent unraveling: “We’ve been here before,” Helms reassures, “and we’ll get through this, too”—after all, America’s “situation normal” is “all fucked up.” It’s a charming and irreverent alternative history. (Apr.)