P.J. O'Rourke

Author profile

born

in Toledo, Ohio, The United States

November 14, 1947

gender

male

website

http://www.pjorourke.com/

twitter username

PJOrourke

genre

Nonfiction, Humor, Politics

About this author

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Patrick Jake O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, and writer. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He is perhaps best known in the United Kingdom as the face of a long-running series of television advertisements for British Airways in the 1990s.

He is the author of 13 books, most recently On The Wealth of Nations, a commentary on Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (and the first in The Atlantic Monthly's "Books That Changed The World" series). According to a 60 M...more

39 posts
P.J. O'Rourke's Blog

P.J. O'Rourke isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but he does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from his feed.

The Times Loses It: Sense and nonsense about Tucson

It was a weekend of great sorrow. On Saturday, January 8, an insane young man tried to kill Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, injuring her horribly. The man then fired his gun into a small political gathering, murdering a nine-year-old girl, a federal judge, a congressional staffer, and three of Giffords's constituents. Thirteen other people were wounded. In the midst of life we are in death. T... Read more of this blog post »

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Published on January 17, 2011 06:01 • 152 views

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P.J. O'Rourke's Books

Average rating: 3.75 · 10,955 ratings · 904 reviews · 43 distinct works · Similar authors

	Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P.J. O'Rourke, Andrew Ferguson (Foreword by) 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 1,771 ratings — published 1991 — 10 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World's Worst Places and Asks, "What's Funny About This" 3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 1,384 ratings — published 1988 — 21 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics 3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 1,237 ratings — published 1994 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	All the Trouble in the World 3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 912 ratings — published 1994 — 13 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer by P.J. O'Rourke, Laura Hammond Hough (Designed by) 3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 avg rating — 824 ratings — published 1992 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut 3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 avg rating — 710 ratings — published 1995 — 15 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On The Wealth of Nations 3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 avg rating — 700 ratings — published 2006 — 23 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People 3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 avg rating — 557 ratings — published 1983 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and (Other) Outrages of P.J. O'Rourke 3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 avg rating — 549 ratings — published 1988 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism 3.52 of 5 stars 3.52 avg rating — 560 ratings — published 2004 — 18 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by P.J. O'Rourke

“Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.”
― P.J. O'Rourke

tags: books, good-impressions

244 people liked it

“Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle. There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”
― P.J. O'Rourke

70 people liked it

“You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going.”
― P.J. O'Rourke

tags: growing-up, parenthood

68 people liked it

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