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Made in America
- Narrated by: William Roberts
- Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins
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Summary
Featuring a special introduction written for the audiobook edition and read by the author
In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land, explaining how a dusty 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.
Critic reviews
"A treat....Filled with surprises....A literate exploration of why we use, or mangle, our native tongue." ( USA Today)
What listeners say about Made in America
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- Anonymous User
- 08-04-24
Entertaining and interesting story
Quite many factual errors, but an entertaining and interesting story. In overall, an "ok" book.
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- STIX MTIZWA
- 26-06-21
Brilliant Bryson
No author can delight and inform quite like the incomparable modern day bard that is Bill Bryson.
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- Miss LC Moran
- 28-10-20
a trove of facts and anecdotes
so many fascinating tales in the history of our lexicon. there are literally thousands. I need to re listen to try to remember some. only complaint is its very long!
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- ian
- 03-05-17
Bryson rocks
My second bryson book and I have enjoyed them both. Recommend this to anyone who loves titbits of knowledge and the history of the roots of language we use today.
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- Ness
- 20-08-21
educational as always
Typical Bill Bryson. So much information you'll never be able to remember it all but enlightening all the same. I enjoyed it very much
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- Amazon Customer
- 16-11-21
Hugely interesting
A thorough and meticulously researched quasi-history of the USA as observed through the lens of language. While the narration felt slightly grinding in the early stages of the audio book, this was surpassed by a feeling of respect for the narrator's enthusiasm and resilience which kept what is a long listen that covers a great deal of ground sounding fresh and engaging throughout. Highly recommended.
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- Ali
- 06-09-21
I Learnt a lot but It's not my favourite Bryson!
I didn't realize that this book was mainly about the development of specific words to form the modern American language and just thought it was about America, that being said I really need enjoyed it, I learned quirky stories to tell in conversation to feel intelligent. I did fact check a few stories and am not sure of their accuracy (like the one about the origin of the computer bug) and not having Bryson as the narrator means it loses something but I still enjoyed and would recommend this book
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- Dan
- 08-11-18
a great bridge between American and English!
the reading is as always on top performance by William Roberts, and the contents are as always well researched and written in humour. it was a tad full of lists regards to some parts so I found myself zoning out from time to time but on the whole loved it.
if you were starting out on here, would recommend a brief history of nearly everything instead but this is the 6th boom in the series and it still provides open laughter during listening and some real insight and understanding to the language changes.
all round great book, but there are better ones in the series first!
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- Steve
- 10-02-14
M.a.d.e i.n A.m.e.r.i.c.a
What did you like most about Made in America?
I tend to have several books on the go at once - fiction alongside non-fiction. So this was useful as I could dip into the book and pause between passages.
This is a surprisingly easy listen given the subject matter of 'words' and phrases made in America. Interesting and informative - but obviously not useful as a quick reference - so treat it accordingly.
However - whilst I do not like 'abridged' version of books - there is something to recommend 'adapted' for audio - there are occasional passages where the book and audio consists of seemingly endless lists - which work well on paper but not on audio - especially when they are also spelled out.
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- greghk
- 14-11-21
Really interesting but.....
I found the book to be really interesting but I just couldn't finish it, For me it was the audiobook format, with too many "lists" of things; words, spellings, dates, etc. Probably much better in book or e-book format as you could always skip the lists, and if necessary refer back to them later or maybe just have the fascinating and interesting facts and then the lists as appendices.
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