American Nerd
The Story of My People
By Benjamin Nugent
(Scribner, Paperback, 9780743288026, 256pp.)
Publication Date: June 2, 2009
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover
Categories: Anthropology - Cultural, Sociology - General
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Now in paperback, “one of the season’s most talked about cultural studies” (Los Angeles Times)—an incisive and irrever- ent appreciation of nerds that combines history, sociology, psy- chology, 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 concept of nerdiness and its related subcultures. What makes Dr. Frankenstein the archetypal nerd? Where did the modern jock come from? When and how did being a self-described nerd become trendy? As the nerd emerged in the nineteenth century, and popped up again and again in college humor journals and sketch comedy, our culture obsessed over the phenomenon.
“Part history, part memoir, and all funny” (GQ), American Nerd is critically acclaimed writer Benjamin Nugent’s enter- taining fact-finding mission. He seeks the best definition of nerd and illuminates the com- mon ground between nerd sub- cultures that might seem unre- lated: high-school debate team kids and ham radio enthusiasts, medieval reenactors and pro- circuit videogame players. Why do the same people who like to work with computers also enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons? How are those activi- ties similar? This clever, enlight- ening book will appeal to the nerd (and anti-nerd) that lives inside everyone.
Benjamin Nugent joined the staff of Time magazine as an arts and pop culture correspondent at the age of 22. He's gone on to write for numerous publications, including New York magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Psychology Today, GQ, and n+1. Nugent is the author of two works of nonfiction, the most recent of which is American Nerd: The Story of My People. His fiction has appeared in Tin House and The L, and he earned his MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Nugent is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University.
Travel can be stressful, with flight delays, waiting rooms, and hours in economy class. One of the best ways to survive this mayhem is with a good book. Author Susan Jane Gilman offers suggestions for six great books that won't embarrass you in airports. More at NPR.org
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"American Nerd is very funny and consistently smart, but it's also mildly controversial -- I'm not sure I've ever seen these kinds of cogent, intuitively accurate arguments made about any 'type' of modern person. Benjamin Nugent is just weird enough to be absolutely right." -- Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
"The coolest book about nerds ever written. Heck, one of the coolest books ever written, period. Benjamin Nugent is the Richard Daw-kins of geekdom. Outsiders of the world, this is required reading. Know your roots!" -- Paul Feig, creator of Freaks and Geeks
"In his charming and disarmingly serious study of the history of the "nerd" in popular culture and throughout modern history, Nugent succeeds in crafting a nuanced discussion without resorting to smugness or excessive cleverness...Nugent's exploration of outcasts is a triumph." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"This book could be taken as a serious sociological study of a North American archetype, or perhaps as a tongue-in-cheek dissection of a North American myth -- either way, it's splendid....In a lighthearted, often laugh-out-loud manner, Nugent challenges us to reexamine our long-held belief of what it means to be a nerd and to reposition the nerd as, if not an American hero, at least an American antihero. Great fun and remarkably insightful between the laughs." -- Booklist, starred review
"An amusing and insightful meditation...Great fun, whether you're cool or not." -- Kirkus Reviews
"A truly excellent book." -- Time.com
"What everyone should be talking about...funny." -- GQ
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