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Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson
spooky_simon's review
What started as a delightful exploration of the development of American English took an unnecessary tangent into the authors options and beliefs about American history. In a book replete with footnotes, a glaring lack of citations exist for his belief that "the physical cruelties to which [slaves] were subjected have perhaps been somewhat inflated in the popular mind - most were at least passably fed and clothed ... It was after all in the slaveowners interest to look after his property" two sentences before euphemistically explaining that female slaves were the subject to routine and systematic rape at the hands of not only their owners but also their overseers. I'm not sure if it makes it any better that he says actually what they did face was humiliation and how bad that was.
Not only is this ahistorical, but it's just weird and unnecessary to put it. It colors the rest of the book and every other historical opinion he has comes across in the context of this point of view. As the book progresses, he actually has increasingly long stretches without citations which I can now only assume are just bloviating.
Sorry, Bill, stick to sucking at hiking, that was really funny at least.
Not only is this ahistorical, but it's just weird and unnecessary to put it. It colors the rest of the book and every other historical opinion he has comes across in the context of this point of view. As the book progresses, he actually has increasingly long stretches without citations which I can now only assume are just bloviating.
Sorry, Bill, stick to sucking at hiking, that was really funny at least.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault
aclayton_'s review against another edition
4.75
So much interesting information in this book! Thoroughly enjoyed
laurapoulosky's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book in the mid-1990s after an English friend of mine in France, who was always amused by my Americanisms, recommended it to me. I remembering enjoying it a lot!
aemily's review against another edition
2.0
I have some really mixed feelings about this book!
It took me longer than normal to read, in part because of the way it was organized. The chapters are thematic and sort of chronological, but not always. While I expected more information about linguistic forms that originated or came into common use in America, the book is almost exclusively about words that came about because of new stuff; I imagined that the word “telegraph” came about at the time of the invention of the telegraph, so I don’t need that fact spelled out. It often felt like a brief version of a US history textbook rather than a book about language.
There are also some specious claims: at one point, Bryson writes that there never was a word ‘penny.’ Of course there is! It may be an interesting oddity that this word does not appear in the texts he was looking at, but any linguist—or reasonable person, for that matter—would agree that the word exists. The final chapter rubbed me the wrong way as a teacher of English learners. Not only did he graze over some statistics about American children’s’ reading abilities, he danced around some opinions about immigrants learning English. It was as if he was trying to walk a perfect line between ‘it’s America, speak English’ and ‘immigrants are great,’ but executed both positions poorly.
There are interesting tidbits, to be sure, but I would not use this as a basis for understanding English in America.
It took me longer than normal to read, in part because of the way it was organized. The chapters are thematic and sort of chronological, but not always. While I expected more information about linguistic forms that originated or came into common use in America, the book is almost exclusively about words that came about because of new stuff; I imagined that the word “telegraph” came about at the time of the invention of the telegraph, so I don’t need that fact spelled out. It often felt like a brief version of a US history textbook rather than a book about language.
There are also some specious claims: at one point, Bryson writes that there never was a word ‘penny.’ Of course there is! It may be an interesting oddity that this word does not appear in the texts he was looking at, but any linguist—or reasonable person, for that matter—would agree that the word exists. The final chapter rubbed me the wrong way as a teacher of English learners. Not only did he graze over some statistics about American children’s’ reading abilities, he danced around some opinions about immigrants learning English. It was as if he was trying to walk a perfect line between ‘it’s America, speak English’ and ‘immigrants are great,’ but executed both positions poorly.
There are interesting tidbits, to be sure, but I would not use this as a basis for understanding English in America.
sandylc's review against another edition
3.0
Lots of amusing and interesting historical tidbits, served with humor.
bethdillman's review
It's pretty boring and dry. I fall asleep every time I pick it up.
jimbowen0306's review against another edition
4.0
Bill Bryson is a humorous author who typically write gently comic travel books, that draw heavily on his bewilderment at modern life, and its' incongruities. On occasion he changes directions, writing books about history, and Shakespeare, for example, while maintaining his humorous approach to the subject matter.
This books is one of this direction changes. Here, he looks at the history of English in his native America. He addresses a variety of issues, and looks at a variety of times. So he talks about food, travel, sex, and entertainment, for example, and shows us the words and phrases that were introduced to the language by Americans, with his usual lightness of touch.
He also addresses the intellectual snobbery that the British bring to the language, and makes some valid points about the evolution of the language in both places.
The book is funny, and worth reading, but it might feel a little dated now, as it stops talking about the language in the mid-1990s.
This books is one of this direction changes. Here, he looks at the history of English in his native America. He addresses a variety of issues, and looks at a variety of times. So he talks about food, travel, sex, and entertainment, for example, and shows us the words and phrases that were introduced to the language by Americans, with his usual lightness of touch.
He also addresses the intellectual snobbery that the British bring to the language, and makes some valid points about the evolution of the language in both places.
The book is funny, and worth reading, but it might feel a little dated now, as it stops talking about the language in the mid-1990s.
lethaldose's review
5.0
Bill Bryson knows how to make history interesting better than any other author I have read. This book was an amazing look at americanisms, it seems as though it will be about the american version of the english language, but it goes further and looks at things that just make america, "america". A fun interesting journey into finding out what makes us just so damn american.