false 1576816 2 Most people know a nerd when they see one but can't define just what a nerd is. <I>American Nerd: The Story of My People</i> gives us the history of the concept of nerdiness and of the subcultures we consider nerdy. What makes Dr. Frankenstein the archetypal nerd? Where did the modern jock come from? When and how did being a self-described nerd become trendy? As the nerd emerged, vaguely formed, in the nineteenth century, and popped up again and again in college humor journals and sketch comedy, our culture obsessed over the designation.<P>Mixing research and reportage with autobiography, critically acclaimed writer Benjamin Nugent embarks on a fact-finding mission of the most entertaining variety. He seeks the best definition of nerd and illuminates the common ground between nerd subcultures that might seem unrelated: high-school debate team kids and ham radio enthusiasts, medieval reenactors and pro-circuit Halo players. Why do the same people who like to work with computers also enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons? How are those activities similar? This clever, enlightening book will appeal to the nerd (and antinerd) that lives inside all of us. 1569561 13 5 2008 American Nerd: The Story of My People total:441|5:24|4:108|3:177|2:114|1:18| 441 1329 1073 164 2 12 false false Tue Aug 05 10:34:50 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 11:51:15 -0700 2008 Male American Nerd. Female nerds (or geeks or dorks or what have you—but let’s stick with Nugent’s terminology) are glossed over when they’re mentioned at all. Aside from a little bit about Saturday Night Live’s Lisa Loopner and four paragraphs—count ’...more...]]> 4 5 false false Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 08:46:08 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 08:04:48 -0700 2008
Jack Jenkins and Zack Malitz found in their debate community a way to rebel against what they considered an overly regimented high-school existence. Their nerdy activity was a ...more...]]> 4 4 false false Fri May 16 00:55:24 -0700 2008 Wed May 14 19:38:18 -0700 2008 Fri May 16 00:55:24 -0700 2008
Nugent's natural mode is somewhere in between magazine color writing and sheer bl...more...]]> 2 3 false false Thu Aug 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 08:32:22 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 19 14:25:19 -0700 2008 American Nerd: The Story of My People author Benjamin Nugent starts off with a great premise. He aims to trace the origin of the nerd stereotype, see how it developed, examine how it's depicted in popular culture, and see how it's entangled with our thinking about masculinity, technology, intelli...more...]]> 2 5 false false Sat Jul 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 06 11:12:07 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 12 10:37:29 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 3 false false Mon May 26 19:11:20 -0700 2008 Sun May 18 19:31:36 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 19:11:20 -0700 2008 Slate article -- you feel like you're listening to a friend...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 11:27:29 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 11:27:50 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 23:02:48 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 13:31:19 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 true false Mon Jun 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 23:31:59 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 20 15:13:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 22:31:22 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 07:20:54 -0700 2008 The Book Thief, I thought that American Nerd would fit the bill quite nicely. What I came to realize was that American Nerd was not the lighthear...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 14:12:28 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 15:10:04 -0800 2008
The historical inve...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 03 18:52:25 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 19:22:27 -0800 2008 I liked the book for two reasons. The first being that it did a pretty good job of defining nerddom-and the origin of the word itself. ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:58:52 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:58:52 -0800 2009 Many readers—self-identified nerds or not—will find American Nerd a smart, entertaining cultural history-memoir. Peppered with examples from literature, television, academia, and pop culture, the book successfully portrays a subculture that has been ridiculed, scorned, and admired (think of the ...

more...]]> 3 0 false true Tue Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 17:25:10 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 07:34:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Jul 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 18:54:42 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 18:23:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 07:08:13 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 06:59:42 -0800 2009
When Nugent subtitles this "...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 08:50:29 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 18 06:38:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 30 13:11:58 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 30 13:11:58 -0700 2008 American Nerd is the opposite of that -- honest and revealing and surprisingly moving.]]> 3 1 false false Tue May 27 05:28:58 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 05:29:52 -0700 2008
Also, part interesting and part dull. I kept wanting this to be a great book but it really really wasn't. Although parts of it were pretty interesting.]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 21:14:43 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 21:24:47 -0700 2009
A little hard to follow - he goes into several different nerd subcultures and doesn't always tie all the threads together. I felt like he presupposes a little more familiarity with Dungeons and Dragons than I have.

One of the pa...more...]]>