Made in America
Bill Bryson turns away from the highways and byways of middle America, so hilariously depicted in his bestselling The Lost Continent, for a fast, exhilarating ride along the Route 66 of American language and popular culture. In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land - explaining how a dusty desert hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up - as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.
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A chatty social and linguistic history of American English, working through the Pilgrims, the Founding Fathers, the railroads, advertising, the movies, and the way each generation rewrote the language without noticing.
Multiple books share this title. The most commonly searched is Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson (1994), one of his earliest popular history books.
Yes. Both share Bill Bryson's signature accessible style and dense factual reporting. Made in America focuses on language and American history; A Short History of Nearly Everything covers science. Either is an entry point to his nonfiction.
Made in America is 417 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Made in America takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Made in America is a standalone novel by Bill Bryson, not part of a series.
Made in America is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
