Overview

"Swearing, cussing, or cursing, out of anger, excitement, or just because, is something most of us do, at least to some degree. Turn on the television or open a magazine, and there it is. Damn! is an insightful and entertaining look at our evolving use of profanity over the last half-century or so, from a time when Gone with the Wind came under fire for using the word ""damn"" to an age where the f-bomb is dropped in all walks of life. Writer and artist Rob Chirico follows the course of swearing through literature, the media, and music, as well as through our daily lives. From back rooms and barracks to bookshelves and Broadway; and from precedents to presidents, the journey includes such diverse notables as George Carlin, the Simpsons, D. H. Lawrence, Ice T, Barack Obama, Nietzsche, and, of course, Lenny Bruce. If you have ever stopped and wondered WTF has happened to our American tongue, don't get out the bar of soap until you finish Damn!"

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9781939578204

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Reviews

Slang, which usually steers clear of praise, manages 354 synonyms for 'excellent.' Mr. Chirico's book deserves the lot. It is witty, erudite, admirably widely researched, and skewers those who forget that in the phrase 'bad language,' the 'bad' is merely an opinion and it is the 'language,' as valid and fascinating as any other variety of English, that matters. Thus the essence of a study that will appeal both to the general reader and to the expert who will acknowledge it as among the best overviews of its topic: swearing. H. L. Mencken would have enjoyed Damn! So too would Lenny Bruce. Jonathon Green, author, Green's Dictionary of Slang An informative trip on the topics of profanity, cursing, swearing, obscenity, or whatever else we want to call offensive speech, with connections to media, popular culture, the courts, sports, and social science. Damn! is full of relevant, up-to-date, and comprehensive examples of this vexing aspect of human communication. Chirico's entertaining and often humorous examples bring home the complicated, nuanced, and often misunderstood world of cursing in America past and present. Timothy Jay, PhD, author, Cursing in America and Why We Curse

"""Slang, which usually steers clear of praise, manages 354 synonyms for 'excellent.' Mr. Chirico's book deserves the lot. It is witty, erudite, admirably widely researched, and skewers those who forget that in the phrase 'bad language,' the 'bad' is merely an opinion and it is the 'language,' as valid and fascinating as any other variety of English, that matters. Thus the essence of a study that will appeal both to the general reader and to the expert who will acknowledge it as among the best overviews of its topic: swearing. H. L. Mencken would have enjoyed Damn! So too would Lenny Bruce."" Jonathon Green, author, Green's Dictionary of Slang ""An informative trip on the topics of profanity, cursing, swearing, obscenity, or whatever else we want to call offensive speech, with connections to media, popular culture, the courts, sports, and social science. Damn! is full of relevant, up-to-date, and comprehensive examples of this vexing aspect of human communication. Chirico's entertaining and often humorous examples bring home the complicated, nuanced, and often misunderstood world of cursing in America past and present."" Timothy Jay, PhD, author, Cursing in America and Why We Curse"

Author Information

Rob Chirico is a writer, an artist, and the author of Field Guide to Cocktails. He lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Keith Allan is an Australian linguist and emeritus professor at Monash University.

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