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Made in America

Overview

Subtitled An Informal History of the English Language in the United States. Bryson uses the vocabulary of America to tell its history: what the Pilgrims actually called things, how the founders argued, where the words for food, travel, advertising, sex, war and politics came from, and how much of what Britons think of as American corruption of English is in fact older English that America kept. Along the way he dismantles a fair number of national myths, including most of what people believe about the first Thanksgiving, and has a great deal of fun with the people who tried to legislate the language.

Notes

The companion to The Etymologicon on this list, and the same lesson in a different accent: words carry their history and tell you nothing about how they must be used now. It is also a cheerful corrective to the kind of cultural confirmation bias that lets a British reader feel superior about "gotten" and "fall", both of which we exported. Bryson is a travel writer who reads footnotes, and this is him at his most useful.

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