Made in America

Pardon me while I whine a bit, but the reviewers who complain that the book lacks scholarship and similar pedantic complaints have missed the point. Bill Bryson is a writer, a storyteller, and man of wide interests who can churn out charming, remarkably well researched books at a satisfying rate. Like his History of Everything (the "history" of science), The Informal History of American English is not a textbook, not complete and not intended for a serious study of the language. It makes the point that language is evolutionary, a flexible, variable tool that, in America, probably has had a broader range of lasting influences than most languages, and those influences reflect American society. If you are a reader and like words and their derivations, this is dessert--fully satisfying but not the complete meal. He prefers the words and sayings that have good stories about them, and his 20 years of living in England are reflected in is often wry, dryly witty take on the facts. It is occasionally laugh out loud, has any number of chuckles and is interesting throughout. He writes easily and occasionally reflects some real depth in his efforts. He relies perhaps a bit too much on Mencken's research, but then they share a world view and sense of humor. Originally a travel writer, he takes a trip through American history and points out the bits that interest him most, and makes it enjoyable, entertaining and even educational. Like a conversation, the book sometimes wanders off topic to charming or ironic side note, but he always returns to the main road. If your expectations are reasonable, this book is a pleasure and I suspect you will pick it up later, from time to time, to remind yourself of the story or circumstances behind the way we speak or just to get a moment of intelligent wit. I gave it 4, instead of 5, stars because he could have written more, because it needs a little editing and because despite an impressive bibliography, a bit of the philosophy of language development would not have gone amiss. But for a pleasurable read on an interesting topic for the dilettante (history of the word dilettante is in the book), this is a good buy.

I moved to the States when I was twenty. I was vastly ignorant about the country. I loved this book! Bryson is a spotty writer (not referring to his complexion, but his complete history of everything) but he was spot on with this one.

I'm off to buy another copy.

I live in Florida now. Since I do, I have what I call my hurricane books. These are the books I read and re-read via flashlight or candles if necessary when the power has been off for three weeks.

This is a hurricane book.

I believe Bill Bryson did a magnificent job in his book Made in America with outlining some points in history that we may not have as much of the whole story as we think we do from school. While he illustrates some untold truths of people and events we have for so long put on such a high pedestal his main point is to analyze the English Language in the United States. It is interesting how he manages to tie these to points together and helps one understand how the book flows and the history. My family has always taught me to think for myself and to keep an open mind because history is written by the victor and may not always be the whole truth. I do not think most people grow up with that kind of support and idealism and I think Bill Bryson points this out to many who seem to think that what they learned in school is the God spoken truth even if all the evidence in the world and common sense point otherwise.
I found that my theory of this seemed to be true on many occasions on where I had to interact and converse with my fellow classmates. Many had a hard time believing that there could be anything bad about certain historical figures that have been for so long up on a pedestal that they didn't believe that the people could have even errored. These historical figures are looked upon as Gods, not flawed humans. I noticed a conversation of two of my classmates on Thomas Edison, I believe, and they couldn't believe that all his inventions weren't his. They refused to believe that he could have even possibly have stole the ideas, and the reason for their disbelief, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Because I've never read anything like that in school" apparently they didn't realize that this class includes this book and is school, and "I didn't know him, so I'm just going to go off of what I've been told, and he's good in my book." It seems that people can be confronted with almost unlimited evidence and still say the sky is green.
However, this wasn't the first time I have experienced such things, my Grandmother makes a common example. She refuses to believe even under, again, almost unlimited evidence that Columbus was a bad guy. I have told her he was evil, and she gives me a cocky `I'm not going to believe anything you say because I'm older and know more' smile and says "Why? Because he discovered a country" And that is word for word what she said. Then I try to explain to her why he was evil, and all I get is her shaking her head and saying "Well, I don't believe that. I've never even heard of anything like that."
Of course, after taking a year of psychology I understand why all this is. It is hard for a human being to let go of great ideology of someone after being indoctrinated for so long. I myself have done it; I love my grandfather and for the longest time thought he could do no wrong, and I wouldn't listen to my mother when she tried to warn me it wasn't true. I found out the hard and very disappointed way that he is a racist. But I was a little surprised about my classmates' reaction. You see, the law of psychology in this case is that it is nearly impossible for a human being to let go of this kind of ideology after being indoctrinated for so long, so I expected it with my grandmother, but not young people who were still learning and were still supposed to be open minded.
In school we are often taught just the more wonderful things of the past and our often filled with lies to make everything seem golden as well. A good example of this was the story of one of my favorite professors, Professor Loewen. Professor Loewen was a college professor for American History at a state college. With his first lecture he would ask all the students a bunch of questions and every year he would get around the same statistics of about only an 11% minority being correct. The questions would mostly be on the false superiority of the white man and the opposite of the black man. Well, he began to wonder how they were all getting this false information. It turned out that the textbooks used very old data, and were not much younger themselves, and contained the false information. Well then, he set out to make a new high school text book that would be more accurate. He was very proud of his work and sent this text to the school board for approval. He was turned down 4 to 2. There were four white men on the board and two black men, guess who voted what. In the end he went to court because they wouldn't say why it was turned down. So when the judge finally asked the board why, the board turned to a certain page of a very old, very blurry photo and not very graphic photo of a lynching of a black man. The Boardman said he was afraid the picture would start riots in the school, and it happened so very long ago, why bring it up? The judge decided to answer the question and said "Well, it is a history book, and our state has had more lynchings than any in the country." Professor Loewen won his case.
Bill Bryson did a great job of tying language and history together, but he also tied in psychology, whether that was planned or unknowingly done I don't know. Either way, however, knowing the language at the time of the events gives us some clues into the minds of the people living in the times. He starts all the way from how a nursery rhyme will stay within a culture long after it's meaning has been forgotten all the way to the almost present day America where we are the richest country and European descent is quickly becoming a minority but far from this being a bad thing and most immigrants believe that if you live in America you should speak English (in other words, like everyone else) and become a productive citizen no matter what.
Bill Bryson points out tragedies of the past and almost present, but he all presents the hope in both. Yes, there were things that we shouldn't be proud of in the past, but it doesn't mean all of the past was bad. And yes, even in recent times we've done wrong, but that doesn't mean all our people are bad or the world is coming to an end. Bill Bryson simply points out that there were good things in the past, there were bad things in the past, there were things in between, some even comical, but this doesn't change who we are. It does change our perspective on ourselves and our nation though, in a sense we are no longer glorifying ourselves and godlike, but we are flawed and real. As long as we acknowledge the past we can move forward and we can progress individually and as a nation, because now we are no longer ashamed and we no longer hide. You weep for the victims of the past and you smile unto the survivors, but the most important thing is to not forget their story.

I had read several of Bryson's magazine articles and enjoyed them. This book, while full of fascinating information and facts, was a little too much of a good thing under one cover. Fortunately, the chapters were easily devoured in one sitting and the book could be returned to after several days without losing track. An enjoyable, easy read.

Bill Bryson has a unique and interesting writing style. You just can't put his books down. Makes you understand the little nuances of his travels.