American Heritage

I enjoy reading old history - it's easier to peel back the layers of contemporary bias, since you often don't share it. There's the wide-eyed "Our Two Greatest Presidents," written in the 50s, and the slangy Operation- Petticoat- style "The Man Who Could Speak Japanese" from the 70s. The funniest piece is the one closest to us in timeline (The First Rough Draft of History, 1982) "Q: How about papers like the New York Post, the Mudoch type of journalism... A: ...I have confidence that that'll show more wash out. As I go back over the papers that have disappeared, it's hard to remember good newspapers going down. [p. 816-817]" or "Q: You've just had a son. Will there be newspapers around when he's ready to enter the real world? A: ...I think that newspapers may look different, but people will always want to read hard copy. You can't Xerox television, and you can't memorize what the radio or television announcer tells you, so people will always want to study the details and to read the ads... But if a person is looking for a 1972 blue Mustang with whitewalls, and if he can type that into his computer and come up with three such Mustangs for sale in the Washington area, that would scare me if I were running the classified ad department." [p. 825].

Funny premonitions of craig's list aside, there's some solid history here, and many different writing styles to accommodate many different subjects. It's popular history, so there's not much discussion of sources and no footnotes - just compelling stories about people and places. show less

I thought this short book (it only covers a 100 words after all) might be educational but dry and not very enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised!

Each word is defined and for each definition the word is used in a sentence - one of the cool things is that the example sentences are often from great works of literature we all know, like Shakespeare's plays, Dracula, Little Women, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, The Age of Innocence, etc. Then there are usage notes explaining the problems with the word show more and also sometimes commentary on what percentage of the Usage Panel agrees on the usage of the word in this way, and how that percentage has changed over time.

I felt comfortable with the great majority of the words (i.e., right or wrong, I don't think I'm one of the 'almost everyone' in the title), but I still learned some things.

Enjoyable little book that I would recommend to those who like to read about etymology. show less

Overrated / Underrated by the editors of the American Heritage Magazine seems to me to be a monumental achievement. They took 100 topics/categories such as "Automobile", or "Generation", or "Sports Moment" and then teamed a writer with some expertise in the matter and had him, or her, come up with an "Overrated" and "Underrated" event, person, device or happening.

While I certainly did not agree with every dissertation, there were few subjects that were not interesting, and I did learn quite show more a bit. For instance who knew that Amelia Earhart was recruited (and later married) by publisher George Palmer Putnam in hopes of making her the female flipside of Charles Lindbergh? Odd how both aviators suffered such immense losses.

As a matter of fact this book could easily be made into a game. For instance when your relatives for Thanksgiving or Christmas over-stay their welcome, you might bring out this book and, spying your uncle (who is and has been the owner of several Chevrolet Corvettes) approach him with, "Hey, uncle Bob, it says here in my Overrated/Underrated book that the Corvette is the most overrated car ever." And then stand back, so he can take a look in the book at the most underrated car, for he will surely stroke-out and hit the floor (as I did) and then, hopefully, the paramedics will take him and his family away.

I'm certain countless editions of Overrated/Underrated were used as bathroom companions, as most comparisons cover only two opposing pages with large font that can easily be read in the time it takes to ... do it. Apparently it did not sell well, and this could be due to all the photos inside being grainy black and whites in this day of at least 256 colors available everywhere.

Yes this is an excellent book for the library with the ivory throne and for picking up on facts that you missed in high school because you were trying to look up Terri Seymour's skirt in geometry class once made curious about triangles. It's also good for many of us, who don't get out much, because it exposes us to ideas and opinions often time contrary to our own and our friends. show less

Slim but information dense. Explanations are succinct and easy to understand (one per page), and there's plenty to learn here, even for the experienced writer and the widely read. The only drawback is that some sections could use further explanation.

Some misused words covered include

-"gender" vs. "sex"

-"aggravate" vs. "irritate"

-"all right" vs. "alright"

-"infer" vs. "imply"

-"which" vs. "that"

All serious writers and editors should prioritize reading this.