Book Review: Made in America

I’m an unashamed fan of Bill Bryson. His ability to see through the fog of any topic, and to make sense of it all, is unsurpassed. I also find his writing very funny. The strange thing is he doesn’t come across that way in person. I’ve never understood that. I’ve seen interviews with him where he comes across as really flat, yet his writing is just amazing.

I’m also a fan of understanding more about language. So I was really pleased to get to read his book Made in America which is subtitled as An Informal History of American English. He published this back in 2016 and it’s been on my list for a while.

The contents of this book are a bit of a personal journey for me, probably more so than many people. Even though I speak Australian English, and spend most of my time writing things that make sense to Australian and UK audiences, I also spend a good part of my time writing and tech-editing content that’s written in US English. So I need to be able to quickly flip back and forward between the two.

The first time I became sold on Bryson’s abilities was with A Short History of Everything . I still place that as one of the best books I’ve ever read. I loved the way he brought the history of science to life in such an interesting way.

I then found Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country to be just so very dry and funny.

This book provides an extraordinary history of both the USA and of American English. I enjoyed it thoroughly.