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OverviewIt first surfaced in the gripes of GIs during World War II and was captured early on by the typewriter of a young Norman Mailer. Within a generation it had become a basic notion of our everyday moral life, replacing older reproaches like lout and heel with a single inclusive category-a staple of country outlaw songs, Neil Simon plays, and Woody Allen movies. Feminists made it their stock rebuke for male insensitivity, the est movement used it for those who didn't get it, and Dirty Harry applied it evenhandedly to both his officious superiors and the punks he manhandled.The asshole has become a focus of collective fascination for us, just as the phony was for Holden Caulfield and the cad was for Anthony Trollope. From Donald Trump to Ann Coulter, from Mel Gibson to Anthony Weiner, from the reality TV prima donnas to the internet trolls and flamers, assholism has become the characteristic form of modern incivility, which implicitly expresses our deepest values about class, relationships, authenticity, and fairness. We have conflicting attitudes about the A-word-when a presidential candidate unwittingly uttered it on a live mic in 2000, it confirmed to some that he was a man of the people and to others that he was a boor. But considering how much the word does for us, and to us, it hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves-at least until now. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Geoffrey Nunberg , Kate Udall , Joe SpielerPublisher: Tantor Media, Inc Imprint: Tantor Media, Inc Edition: Library ed Dimensions: Width: 17.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 16.50cm Weight: 0.162kg ISBN: 9781452641560ISBN 10: 1452641560 Publication Date: 04 January 2013 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Audio Publisher's Status: Forthcoming Availability: Not yet available This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationGeoffrey Nunberg, a linguist, is a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Since 1987, he has done a language feature on NPR's Fresh Air, and his commentaries have appeared in the New York Times and many other publications. He is the emeritus chair of the usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary and a winner of the Linguistic Society of America's Language and the Public Interest Award. He is the author of several nonfiction works, including The Years of Talking Dangerously, Going Nucular, and Talking Right. Geoffrey lives in San Francisco. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |