Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States

“A literate exploration of why we use—or mangle—our native tongue.”—USA Today

Bill Bryson celebrates America’s magnificent offspring in the book that reveals once and for all how a dusty western hamlet with neither woods nor holly came to be known as Hollywood…and exactly why Mr. Yankee Doodle call his befeathered cap “Macaroni.”

Bill Bryson, bestselling author of The Mother Tongue, now celebrates its magnificent offspring in the book that reveals once and for all how a dusty western hamlet with neither woods nor holly came to be known as Hollywood . . . and exactly why Mr. Yankee Doodle called his befeathered cap "Macaroni."

“Delightful…relentlessly, exuberantly informative…a potted history of the United States, presenting aspects of American life from cooking to swearing, from warring to shopping.” - Washington Post Book World

“From slavery, immigration and Westward expansion to advertising, sex and shopping malls, he provides scads of fascinating, often little-known facts and anecdotes that, far from glutting his reader’s appetites, should leave them hungry for more.” - Wall Street Journal

“A terrific book, likely to make its readers chuckle if not guffaw…If more high schools used thisas their history text, the course might be one of the morepopular ones in school.” - Denver Post