American Nerd: The Story of My People - Hardcover

Nugent, Benjamin

2.96

1,447 ratings by Goodreads

9780743288019: American Nerd: The Story of My People

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743288017 ISBN 13: 9780743288019

Publisher: Scribner, 2007

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A social exploration of the concept of the intellectual misfit presents a tour of nerd subcultures while tracing the personality's evolution in the media, literature, and society, in a report that reveals lesser-known common traits and interests among various subcultures. 40,000 first printing.

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Review:

"What everyone should be talking about...funny."-- "GQ"

""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"

"A truly excellent book." -- Time.com

"Entertaining and intelligent." -- A. J. Jacobs, "The Washington Post"

"A fascinating mock ethnography." -- "Wired"

"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

About the Author:

Benjamin Nugent joined the staff of Time magazine as an arts and pop culture reporter at the age of twenty- two. He's written for numerous publica- tions, including New York magazine, n+1, NME, and Legal Affairs. His first book, Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing, a study of the indie rock musician, was published in 2004. He lives in Los Angeles. He was a nerdy child.

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