Go to Hachette Book Group home

Search

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

Ascent of the A-Word

Assholism, the First Sixty Years

Ascent of the A-Word Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Geoffrey Nunberg

Formats and Prices

Price

$9.99

Price

$12.99 CAD

Format

ebook

Format:

ebook $9.99 $12.99 CAD

Also available from:

It first surfaced in the gripes of GIs during World War II and was captured early on by the typewriter of a young Norman Mailer. Within a generation it had become a basic notion of our everyday moral life, replacing older reproaches like lout and heel with a single inclusive category — a staple of country outlaw songs, Neil Simon plays, and Woody Allen movies. Feminists made it their stock rebuke for male insensitivity, the est movement used it for those who didn’t “get it,” and Dirty Harry applied it evenhandedly to both his officious superiors and the punks he manhandled.

The asshole has become a focus of collective fascination for us, just as the phony was for Holden Caulfield and the cad was for Anthony Trollope. From Donald Trump to Ann Coulter, from Mel Gibson to Anthony Weiner, from the reality TV prima donnas to the internet trolls and flamers, assholism has become the characteristic form of modern incivility, which implicitly expresses our deepest values about class, relationships, authenticity, and fairness. We have conflicting attitudes about the A-word — when a presidential candidate unwittingly uttered it on a live mic in 2000, it confirmed to some that he was a man of the people and to others that he was a boor. But considering how much the word does for us, and to us, it hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves — at least until now.

Genre:

On Sale
Aug 14, 2012
Page Count
272 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781610391764

You May Also Like

The Years of Talking Dangerously
The Years of Talking Dangerously $12.99 $16.99 CAD
The Atoms Of Language
The Atoms Of Language $18.99 $23.99 CAD
The Language Imperative
The Language Imperative $21.99 $28.99 CAD
Romaine Wasn't Built in a Day
Romaine Wasn't Built in a Day $26.00 $33.00 CAD
The Language Game
The Language Game $30.00 $38.00 CAD

Geoffrey Nunberg

About the Author

Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist, is a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Since 1987, he has done a language feature on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and his commentaries have appeared in the New York Times and many other publications. He is the emeritus chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary and a winner of the Linguistic Society of America’s Language and the Public Interest Award. His previous books include Talking Right and Going Nucular. Nunberg lives in San Francisco.

Learn more about this author