Written in the past tense, the book's stated purpose is to serve as a
Baedeker travel guide for an alien civilization that discovers Earth after humanity has died out, most likely by its own hands. As such,
Earth (The Book) attempts to chronicle the history of the planet and the human race from the beginning to the present day, and also tries to explain human concepts and emotions such as "love" and "work" for its alien readers. The book follows a similar format to
America (The Book), being written in the style of a textbook and featuring many images, including visual gags. One controversial visual gag in
America was a
doctored image of the United States Supreme Court justices nude; a similar gag appeared in
Earth which was an illustration of human anatomy that featured a nude man, one half of the man depicting
Larry King. ==Table of contents==