American Nerd: The Story of My People

by Benjamin Nugent

Book Overview

"One of the season's most talked about cultural studies" (Los Angeles Times)--an incisive and irreverent appreciation of nerds that combines history, sociology, psychology, and memoir from noted journalist and self-proclaimed nerd Ben Nugent.

Most people know a nerd when they see one, but yet can't define just what a nerd is exactly. American Nerd: The Story of My People gives readers the history of the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743288025
• ISBN13: 9780743288026
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Interesting from a Sociological POV

I picked up this book mostly out of boredom one day, and I mean who could resist that title? However reading it I found a lot of things I could relate to, not personally per-se but through my brother. My brother has sever Tourette's Syndrome and maybe a mild case of aspergers so it was interesting to read how some of his more obsessively nerdy qualities might be related to such. The Dungeon's and Dragon's fascination, the preferring mathematics to liberal arts, etc. It's not a fantastically deep look into this particular sub-culture, but it's interesting and amusing, which is all I expected from it. I do feel it overlooked some aspects of nerd culture and some categories of nerds, but maybe that's just because I was a prepster nerd myself.

Nerds are (interesting) people, too!

Nugent has produced a high-quality, entertaining read about what he calls "my people"--and I guess they're mine, too. _American Nerd_ is a wide-ranging discussion of what makes someone a "nerd", from the first appearances in writing of the pejorative itself to the physiological origin and allure of nerdlike activities. Other than a couple of odd jaunts into questionable psychoanalysis, this one is absolutely worth your time for its look into an interesting and oft-maligned subculture that has more influence on today's culture than you might first imagine.

American Nerd: the story of my people

Funny, intelligent and informative! Ben Nugent has a better than nerdy style of writing. It kept my interest all the way thru.

Piggy rules!

This is a great book! It spells out the past of nerdism a lot more clearly than anyone else has. Message to Mr. Nugent: If it weren't for the subtitle "The Story of My People" I probably wouldn't have picked this book up. So you should put that in bigger print on the paperback. When I was a child I was just like Piggy in Lord of the Flies. In fact I looked like the boy who played Piggy in the 1963 film of that book.

Many Surprises

Nugent weaves analysis of history, literature, and sociology with reporting, and personal experience to create a multidimensional perspective on what it means in to be a nerd in this culture. He looks at stereotypes, cultural assumptions and their impact on people who tend to be better at activities that don't demand mastery of subtle social interaction and nuance. He reports on a variety of group activities enjoyed by this population and explores some of the psychological benefits of belonging to such groups. As he ponders some of the effects of anti-nerd sentiment and reflects on himself and his childhood friends, he provides an analysis that is poignant, funny, thought provoking, and compassionate. I laughed and cried as I moved through it. I recommend this book to anyone seeking a more complex understanding of a far reaching and often shallow social construction.