American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United Sta

by H.L. Mencken

Book Overview

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B003RBBH92
• Release Date: January 1937
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

I enjoy a book I have to keep stopping and looking up words

I went to Catholic shool. We were taught to read and write with a dictionary and a thesaurus at our side. Very nice book. Nice size, readable print. Well written. I'm happy.

A Fine Book by Knopf Publishing

A nicely printed product for the price-- I wasn't expecting a keepsake or anything. It is an addition to my set by that author, and I'm quite happy with the delivery speed as well as product quality.

Wonderful work of American History and Hist of Language

HL Mencken proves it is possible to be a great journalist and a great language scholar in this amazing multi-edition study of the unique pathways of the English language in the United States from the founding through the Civil War and into the twentieth century. Sometimes his argument seems a little overcooked by the heat of his own "prejudices" (to use a term Mencken liked), against England and in favor of Germany, for example, but the work is amazingly informative and the writing is always magnificent. Raven McDavid's editing and updating of Mencken's work is so good it might have been credited without exaggeration as "with improvements by Raven McDavid."

The Very Spirit of Political Incorrectness

Nobody was safe from the vituperative pen of the self-appointed dean of the attackers of parochialism, provincialism, patriotism, puritanism, philistinism, prohibition. In between, he took some parting shots at college professors and women. He coined a new word `Booboisie,' which to him signified those whom he considered to be intellectualism's weakest link. He was an elitist who had no love for democracy, the common man, or anyone else who disagreed with his exalted opinions. He leaves no doubt in THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE that he bemoans the lack of an educated, ruling class in America: `The capital defect in the culture of These States (phrase borrowed from Whitman) is the lack of a civilized aristocracy, secure in its position, animated by an intellectual curiosity, skeptical of all facile generalizations, superior to the sentimentality of the mob (mob: a term often used by Mencken), and delighting in the battle of ideas for its own sake.' Mencken sees a fake aristocracy of intellectual has-beens, wanna-bes, and never-wases as constituting the current ruling intellectual clique: `But this bugaboo aristocracy is actually bogus, and the evidence of its bogusness lies in the fact that it is insecure.' He would much rather see `a genuine aristocracy founded upon very much different principles. Its first and most salient character is its interior security.' He bitterly adds: `No such aristocracy...is now on view in the United States.' He describes the current sad state of intellectual degeneracy as a sort of perverted hierarchy: `What one beholds, sweeping the eye over the land is a culture that, like the national literature, is in 3 layers--the plutocracy on top, a vast mass of undifferentiated human blanks (notice the elitist disgust here) bossed by demagogues at the bottom, and a forlorn intelligentsia gasping out a precarious life between.' When Mencken took time off from bashing his numerous targets of his intellectual bulls-eyes, he occasionally had something germane to add to literature and language. He was a firm believer that American language, culture and literature were superior to that of its English ancestors. In THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE he asserts that the American language is free from the distracting variations of the English used in Great Britain: `The characters chiefly noted in American English...are, first, its general uniformity throughout the country; second, its impatient disregard for grammatical, syntactical and phonological rule and precedent; and third, its large capacity...for taking in new words and phrases from outside sources, and for manufacturing them of its own materials. The first of these characters has struck every observer, native and foreign. In place of the discordant local dialects of all the other major countries, including England, we have a general Volkssprache for the whole nation, and if it is conditioned at all it is only by minor differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, and by the linguisti

A wonderful, enjoyable read.

We use American English to write. We use American English to speak. American English is the means by which half the world population communicates with each other. So why not spend a little time understanding how the American language came into being. How American English was scorned by England for so many years (and still to this day), and how American English eventually overpowered British English. After reading this book, and then stepping back to see the flow of history, you will surely discover the power of culture and its influence upon language, and visa versa. I think this is a must read for anyone who wishes to become a craftsman in the field of writing.

Entertaining and edifying!!

Mencken provides a look at our impossible language with great flair, erudition, and with a liberal dollop of humor. Here is a spendid book that you can read systematically cover-to-cover or pick up and read in bits and pieces. It covers the development of our language both topically and historically. This volume is absolutely indispensible for both the amateur logophile and the scholar of the English language. I recommend it very highly! It is incredible fun to read!