John H. McWhorter

Author profile

born

January 01, 1965

gender

male

About this author

Dr. John McWhorter is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He earned his B.A. from Rutgers University, his M.A. from New York University, and his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University. Before taking his position at the Manhattan Institute, he held teaching positions at Cornell University, where he held the position of Assistant Professor, and at the University of California, Berkeley, where he held the position of Associate Professor.

Professor McWhorter specializes in language change and language contact. He is the author of The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language; The Word on the Street, a book on dialects and Black English; and Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music in America and Why We Should...more

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John H. McWhorter's Books

Average rating: 3.81 · 3,120 ratings · 516 reviews · 19 distinct works · Similar authors

	Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English 3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 1,346 ratings — published 2008 — 8 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
	The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language 3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 819 ratings — published 2001	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
	Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America 3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 218 ratings — published 2000 — 2 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
	What Language Is: And What it Isn't and What it Could Be 3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 avg rating — 210 ratings — published 2011	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
	Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care 3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 avg rating — 148 ratings — published 2003 — 4 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
	Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard English 3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 avg rating — 91 ratings — published 1998 — 3 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
	The Story of Human Language 4.45 of 5 stars 4.45 avg rating — 67 ratings — published 2004 — 4 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
	Authentically Black 3.66 of 5 stars 3.66 avg rating — 68 ratings — published 2003 — 5 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
	Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America 3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 avg rating — 62 ratings — published 2005 — 4 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 about the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can't Save Black America 3.19 of 5 stars 3.19 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 2008 — 2 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 John H. McWhorter

“A person you excuse from any genuine challenge is a person you do not truly respect.”
― John H. McWhorter

7 people liked it

“Prescriptive grammar has spread linguistic insecurity like a plague among English speakers for centuries, numbs us to the aesthetic richness of non-standard speech, and distracts us from attending to genuine issues of linguistic style in writing.”
― John H. McWhorter, Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A Pure Standard English

tags: english-language

5 people liked it

“English, however, is kinky. It has a predilection for dressing up like Welsh on lonely nights.”
― John H. McWhorter

5 people liked it

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