Made in America cover art

Made in America

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Made in America

By: Bill Bryson
Narrated by: William Roberts
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

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.

©1994 Bill Bryson (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Americas Linguistics Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary United States Funny Witty Thought-Provoking Suspenseful Imperialism Latin American United Kingdom American History British Empire Old West Wild West

Critic reviews

"Bryson offers a playfully anecdotal account of the etymology of distinctive words and phrases that help to create a distinctly American English." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A treat....Filled with surprises....A literate exploration of why we use, or mangle, our native tongue." ( USA Today)
All stars
Most relevant
Anyone who loves language and fancies themselves an arm-chair historian will absolutely love this book. Wonderfully read by William Roberts. Download it NOW!

FAN-tastic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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!

a great bridge between American and English!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Bill Bryson does not need an introduction, but in case you never heard of him, you should start with “Walk in the woods” or “Notes from the small island” rather than this one...

Still, “Made in America” is a good book which I found very entertaining. The author takes you on a cultural journey through the centuries from development of the language, food, via industrial development, traditions and on through day to day American life.

He does not shy from sharing his opinions and strangely British humour (he must have developed that early on) and gives the story its unique Brysonsque character.
So if you can laugh out loud and you enjoy reading about cultural differences and travels, you wil love it.

Finally, the icing on this cupcake is in the narration. William Roberts does a splendid job and I think Bill would fully approve.

Welcome to the Hotel America. Such a lovely place.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Lots of really interesting information. A little out of date now but still well worth a listen. There are parts where in the written text it is clearly a list, and this is not great in am audio book. However for the most part of its an enjoyable history lesson which entertains along the way.

Interesting and informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

Hugely interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews