Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years

by Geoffrey Nunberg

It first surfaced in the gripes of GIs during World War II and was captured early on by the typewriter of a young Norman Mailer. Within a generation it had become a basic notion of our everyday moral life, replacing older reproaches like lout and heel with a single inclusive category––a staple of country outlaw songs, Neil Simon plays, and Woody Allen movies. Feminists made it their stock rebuke for male insensitivity, the est movement used it for those who didn’t “get it,” and Dirty Harry applied it evenhandedly to both his officious superiors and the punks he manhandled.
The asshole has become a focus of collective fascination for us, just as the phony was for Holden Caulfield and the cad was for Anthony Trollope. From Donald Trump to Ann Coulter, from Mel Gibson to Anthony Weiner, from the reality TV prima donnas to the internet trolls and flamers, assholism has become the characteristic form of modern incivility, which implicitly expresses our deepest values about class, relationships, authenticity, and fairness. We have conflicting attitudes about the A-word––when a presidential candidate unwittingly uttered it on a live mic in 2000, it confirmed to some that he was a man of the people and to others that he was a boor. But considering how much the word does for us, and to us, it hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves––at least until now.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, History, Linguistics, Sociology, Cultural

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2012

About the author

Geoff Nunberg is a linguist and professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information in Berkeley, California, USA. He is also a frequent contributor to the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air".

Reviews

[Nathaniel Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing read, overall. The initial premise is murky, and the author tends to get rather lost in the weeds (disappearing, as it were, up his own a-hole for relatively long periods of this relatively short book). I don’t even necessarily disagree with most of it, but the book has a tendency to try and have it both ways. Assholism is completely new but also not new at all, everything is different except when it’s the same, etc. The treatment of the etymology and history is blatantly padded out (which, given the obvious and easy line drawn between the anus and an unpleasant person, is not surprising; there’s only so much one can say about such a natural coinage), and the multiple-chapter diversion into the overall history of profanity felt a bit like reading a poorly organized Cliff’s Notes version of “Holy Shit,” a book which I enjoyed significantly more.

The central thesis, such as it is, isn’t even coherent; initially, we are told repeatedly that part of being an asshole is not KNOWING one is an asshole, that lack of self-awareness is a central feature of the concept, as someone who knows that what they’re doing is an asshole move becomes more of a villain – a cad, a bounder, a heel, etc., as the book explains. Thus far I am in agreement. The book attempts to formulate a grander theory, then, of “political assholism” and to explain the polarization of modern US politics through the lens of the asshole. Again, not something I’d particularly argue with. However, the discussion of “political assholism” explicitly states that this process involves saying things one does not believe (or does not wholly believe) in order to enjoy imagining how upset one’s opponents will be that one said them, which means that political assholes are deliberately acting in bad faith and/or uncivilly and therefore, by the book’s own definition, can’t be assholes.

Final verdict: mildly amusing, but clearly written from the highly marketable title/concept backward and not as a project in its own right. If you want a discussion of profanity, pick up “Holy Shit” by Melissa Mohr instead. If you want to read about why people on the political right act like assholes, just read Fred Clark’s “Slacktivist” blog archives for a much more cogent and less self-satisfied discussion of tribalism and othering.

[Cyndie Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every wonder where the word a-hole comes from? This book not only helps explain (Thanks Patton?) in a way that's really interesting, but also helps link the etymology to what the word REALLY means and how we use it today. Its real uses go far beyond the dictionary definitions that try to claim that this is just another synonym for "cad" and this book dives into the undertones of both power differentials, contempt, and accusations of ignorance implicit in our use of this word. The author also explores what our common adoption of this word means for how we view and treat one another - as well as how we try to build and justify our alliances against outsiders. A really compelling read that I'll definitely want to add to my "jerk library."

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of this book was about the current political climate of incivility. Which, yeah, I know. I'm living it. So maybe future generations will find this a fascinating look at our present day, but I wasn't too into it. It was published by Public Affairs Press, so maybe I'm the asshole for not realizing that.

I also question the integrity of some of the research. Apparently, the charts came from Google Books searches. No Oxford English Dictionary? No study of oral speech? The author also states a bias toward "standard" usage, i.e., whites. It just seems really quickly put together.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and often entertaining cultural/historical/linguistic exploration of "asshole" as word, concept, and idea.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’d have to be a real you-know-what not to like this book at least a little bit.
Written by a linguistics professor at Cal-Berkeley, this treatise is actually much more than a punchline. Author Geoffrey Nunberg (a regular guest on NPR’s “Fresh Air” before his death in 2020) explores the historical nuances of the A-word over multiple decades, under such chapter headings as “The Rise of Dirty Words,” “A**holes Come of Age” and “Men Are All A**holes.”
Much like the Supreme Court justice who said he couldn’t define obscenity but knew it when he saw it, most of us immediately recognize an a**hole whenever we bump up against one, Nunberg asserts. “We tend to think of a**holes the way we think of lefties — either you are one, or you aren’t,” he writes.
The word originated during World War II with American GIs in search of a new descriptor for their military superiors. Nunberg raises up a number of celebrity candidates worthy of the A-word, with brief case studies on three of them: Gen. George Patton, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump. He observes how society can at once detest or celebrate an a**hole, depending on the context and one’s own biases.
He explores precursors and synonyms to the A-word (think heel, cad, phony, jerk, scoundrel), and elaborates on why none of them carry quite the same oomph of condemnation. The various qualities of a true a**hole, he notes, include entitlement, cluelessness and lack of empathy.
This is yet another book I quite enjoyed but never would have encountered if not for my book group. We are 10 guys who read only nonfiction, and have recently begun making our selections via preferential or ranked voting. Fortunately, there is not a single cad or heel — much less an a**hole — in the bunch.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting concept, and not that it was terribly written. It's just there's only so much you can talk about. Bringing in history helped a little and making the book more interesting, but I think it needed more. Who knows maybe I'm just in a hole :-)

[Vicki NewMath · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a painful read.

[David Dinaburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ascent of the A-Word’s restraint is laudable; for what is ostensibly a book about assholes, Nunberg deftly avoids being mired in snark. As he puts it, “Snark tries to be quippy and droll...but it’s essentially cynical and destructive, asking the reader to share a sense of superiority to its target, often by appealing to familiar prejudices.” The book is filled with interesting vignettes that illustrate how comprehensive and vital asshole has become to the modern lexicon:

A friend calls to tell you that she has just discovered that her husband has been having an affair with the nanny. You’re not about to respond by saying, “Sacre bleu! How caddish!” or by improvising some novel malediction that invites admiration for your cleverness—this isn’t about you, after all. Common decency requires that you simply say, “What an asshole!” thereby not just condemning the offense and manifesting your contempt for the offender, but also inviting your listener to replace her feelings of hurt and diminution with restorative anger.

Whatever the topic, Geoffrey Nunberg is always a pleasure to read. Ascent of the A-Word covers more than just the etymology of asshole—“The words that make us laugh aren’t usually ones we give a great deal of thought to. To study asshole is to dip into a pool unrippled by deep contemplation, insulated from the airs and distension that can infect a word like incivility, which provides an accurate reflection of what we genuinely think about how we should behave toward one another.”

Over the course of the book, the truly academic nature of the discourse leaves the reader feeling empowered with knowledge; the fog of the taboo (taboo also enjoys a brief history lesson) surrounding asshole lifts; its impact dwindles but its meaning multiplies. "As a name for a certain type of person, asshole comes by its taint second hand, as...‘derivative obscenity.’ When it’s used literally, an obscene word acquires its stigma from the thing it names. But when the word is used figuratively, the stigma is passed on via a kind of contagious magic... Nunberg dispels this magic by virtue of comprehensive review, and suddenly the process of why someone might select asshole as their interjection or admonition makes intellectual—rather than simply intuitive or social—sense. Nunberg expertly disconnects asshole from its inherent vulgarity and exposes the nuances that tend to be overwhelmed by the de rigueur shock of the listener.

I could quote pull quotes until the entire book was posted here; the writing, typical of the author, is engaging and intelligent. If you like etymology, this is worth a read. Ascent of the A-Word does a fantastic job as a history lesson, but it is in parsing the contextual subtleties of a rather blunt word where it shines brightest:

The asshole’s obtuseness makes him incapable of separating his sense of who he is from what he does or what he has or what he knows, which is what it means to be inauthentic. When you hear somebody say indignantly, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ it’s a fair bet that he doesn’t, either.

There’s a certain delusion in the assumption that there’s some virtue in coming clean about one’s assholism. The fact is that there’s no such thing as an “honest asshole”; it’s in the nature of being an asshole that you’re obtuse about your entitlements and about the way others see you. If you’re consciously and deliberately offending or manipulating someone, you necessarily belong to another breed. So when you hear somebody proudly declaring himself an asshole, it’s a fair conclusion that he’s not an asshole, he’s just a dick.

The distinct lack of assholism in Ascent of the A-Word lends credence to the author and weight to the subject, so that the reader feels compelled by the closing interdiction:

...when somebody is being an asshole about a really important matter, then out of respect for the topic alone you ought to refrain from being an asshole back at him and answer instead with the seriousness the question requires. The important business of public life creates an obligation of self-restraint.

It is amazing that a book filled to bursting with nothing but assholes could end with the reader less likely to become one.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

So-so book but some lovely moments:

I had reservations about using the bare word asshole in the title. I suppose I could have appealed to the dispensation that allows disinterested scholars to address indelicate matters without impropriety, to touch pitch and not be defiled. But it doesn’t quite work like that. Vulgar words like these tend to bleed through quotation marks; they jerk and quiver even on the dissection table. - location 175


The Washington Times called it “a vulgar euphemism for a rectal aperture,” which suggested a certain confusion about what a euphemism is.The - location 410


The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines asshole simply as “someone foolish or contemptible; an uncompromising term of abuse.” That’s roughly the same as the definitions the dictionary gives for shit (“a contemptuous epithet applied to a person”), prick (“a vulgar term of abuse for a man”), fuckwad (“a foolish or contemptible person; also as a term of abuse”), and cocksucker (“used as a generalized term of abuse”). A foreigner who consulted the OED for elucidation of the fine points of English malediction could be - location 508


Yet there’s a fair consensus about what kinds of behavior qualify someone for the asshole label, and they’re only a fraction of the things you could do to make yourself “foolish or contemptible,” as the OED defines the word. You can be an asshole for abruptly cutting into a line of cars waiting in the left-turn lane, but probably not for failing to signal a turn or texting while you drive. You can be an asshole for cheating on your wife or girlfriend, but not for cheating on your expense reports or a final exam. You can be an asshole for taking credit for a colleague’s work, but probably not for plagiarizing from someone else’s book. A CEO may count as an asshole if he yells at his assistants or makes sexual advances to women employees, but not if he simply gets his board to pay him a bloated compensation package. And even if you believe that George W Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq, that by itself wouldn’t make him an asshole, though he might have earned the label for his press-conference smirks. Of course you can cook up scenarios in which any one of these things might qualify someone an asshole, but it takes some additional background. If I simply say that I caught a student cheating on his final, you wouldn’t be likely to remark, “What an asshole!” unless we both knew that there was more to the story than that. - location 519


I say [fucking is a] “quasi-adjective” and “quasi-adverb” because these items don’t really behave like ordinary adjectives and adverbs. Fucking in “the fucking car” may seem to be parallel to red or old, but we can’t say “How fucking was the car?” or “The car looked fucking.” And while you can say “That dessert was fucking good,” if someone asks “How good was the dessert?” you can’t just say “Fucking,” though you could answer “Very.” - location 3596


the answer to the question “Have we gotten ruder?” has always been yes. Since the early Victorian era, there has never been a moment when critics weren’t looking back wistfully on the decorum that prevailed a generation or two earlier. People have been bemoaning the disappearance of “old-fashioned courtesy” since Dickens’ day—indeed, the term “old-fashioned” itself reflects the universal assumption that true manners are a bygone virtue. (In the twenty-five billion or so web pages indexed by Google, no one has so much as a word of praise for “the very latest courtesy” or “up-to-the-moment politeness.”) - location 2026

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The theme of this book is very loosely linked (but the loose link was what drew me to it) to that of Harry "G" Frankfurt's On Bullshit.

Each book attempts a serious reflection on a colloquial word, postulating that the word has a fairly specific sense and that that sense is more than just deprecatory. Where "bullshit" refers to a type of discourse, or utterance, in semi-technical senses, and only by grammatical extension brings in the producer (the bullshitter), the "asshole" under discussion is a type of personality, identified of course by behaviour and attitudes.

Frankfurt attempts a relatively rigorous definition of bullshit; there is a loose consensus that his definition doesn't work but he is on to something real.

I don't know about a consensus on Assholism as I haven't read around it. He doesn't express his thesis in one definitive formulation but the claim seems to be that one can reasonably define, or at least sketch towards a definition of, "asshole" (in its non-anatomical sense, obviously), in terms of notions like sense of entitlement, obnoxiousness, demagoguish demoticism (I paraphrase here), and so on. He also tries to set up a kind of karmic rule whereby assholism proliferates by calling forth opposition of the same character. Finally - and I think most tendentiously - he claims that there is something new(ish) about the ascendancy of assholism in more or less public life (hence "the first sixty years").

I can't claim to have reflected at length on these claims but my reactions while reading were that the definition is plausible but not massively illuminating; the notion of asshole behaviour calling forth more asshole behaviour (as when you cut me up on the road and I give you the finger, right in front of my innocent granny) likewise; and the idea that there is anything hugely novel about the prevalence and salience of assholes in modern life - well, there may be something in it, but I think not as much as is suggested by writing a 200-page book on it. It would have to do, I think, with the rise of democracy, mass education, erasure of class distinctions, the essential egotism of the capitalist scheme we all now apparently accept as nature's way, and so on. Not to say that Nunberg doesn't touch on all this, he does; but my idea would be that the "asshole" as distinct from her/his antecedents is just a derived and minor mutation of an ancient aspect of social life.

Pompous enough for you? (Pompous asshole!)

PS I forgot to mention: one key feature of this book is that it is essentially a Google Books corpus research project. This aspect I like; it demonstrates at least that this resource is available and can be mined for genuinely revealing findings - even if the book is hardly a triumphant example of the genre it belongs to (announces? - I don't know how novel the approach is).

[Geri Spieler · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is delightful that a respected linguist would take up the challenge of writing about an inelegant word that has become a staple of our spoken language.

Although it is not surprising as his other books including Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show and Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times, Ascent of the A-Word is just as interesting.

Who else but Geoffrey Nunberg would have taken the term “asshole” and dissected it into a multitude of forms that both describe and enhance our understanding—indeed appreciation—of this concept?

In the literal sense, asshole refers to someone's anatomy; however, used in the popular colloquial fashion, asshole refers to someone's personality or behavior.

It is the latter meaning Professor Nunberg spends time deftly dissecting, from its first literary appearance to the characteristics of those who represent the archetypes in our society.

Dr. Nunberg traces the use of coarse language from the Victorian era of the 1920s to the spread of the A-word by returning World War II servicemen (and novelist Norman Mailer in The Naked and the Dead).

In an effort to describe who is an asshole or behaves in the category of assholism, Dr. Nunberg aligned his definition with Barbara Walter's. Among those who are often paired with the asshole label are: Rush Limbaugh, Mel Gibson, Hank Williams Jr., Bill O'Reilly, Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise, Karl Rove, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and Mark Zuckerberg.

A personal deliberation over whether someone is an asshole, a prick, or a jerk is more about a personality than semantics. To paraphrase the famous phrase by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart regarding pornography: I can't define one, but I know one when I see one.

[Blair Hodges · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Language warning.*

Swear words are defined by a given society's morals and values. But some swear words don't merely flout morals. Even when it is offensive, a swear word like "asshole" can get its power directly from certain morals and values. It seems paradoxical, but "asshole" has a moral or value-laden logic behind it. This book examines the origins of the epithet and its rise to ubiquity from the early twentieth century to the present. In the process, it explores more general issues about the uses, adaptations, and shades of language.

But author Geoffrey Nunberg is more than an apologist for the a-word. He goes beyond describing the word's history to making a prescriptive case—or rather, he outlines where the term is best employed and warns of the side-effects of employing it.

It is a corollary to what I think of as a "jerk," which is the word I think a lot of my acquaintances use in its stead for reasons of public decency. Symptoms include arrogance, feeling and acting entitled and inconsiderate, boorish, overbearing, mean, rude, etc.

Potential side-effect: Basically, Nunberg argues that assholes create "anti-assholes"; not in the sense of "opposing" but in the sense of mirror reflections. Perceiving others as assholes tends to give you license to respond in kind, creating a sort of vicious circle of asshole violence. He warns that an asshole doesn't know he's an asshole (women are more frequently referred to as "bitches," and he takes some time to distinguish the terms and discuss interesting gender issues, etc.).

I think Nunberg spent too much time dwelling on the political discourse of the recent presidential elections. Yes, the term is very usable in politics, with all the bad side-effects that entails, but it exists beyond that sphere and I wanted more. His analysis can easily be extended to internet debates (which he briefly discusses, but only in relation to politics) and other areas of communication where assholes dwell.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

It shouldn't be a surprise that a book about the etymology and cultural significance of the word "asshole" mentions Donald Trump in the first paragraph. This isn't an election year hit piece; it's a book that was published four years ago when Trump's political aspirations were a talk show punch line rather than a grim, sobering reality. Still, in the words of Nunberg later in the book: "Donald Trump comes closer than anyone else to being the archetype of the species; crossing genres, he exemplifies all the ways an asshole can capture our attention." Maybe if this asshole gets elected, Nunberg's book will take on a weight it doesn't otherwise possess: a warning about how assholism may manipulate the global economy and geopolitics.

Barring this, it's an interesting book with some interconnected cultural analysis of how this particular obscenity emerged at the end of WWII to identify the simultaneous emergence of a particular type of person: the asshole. To hear Nunberg tell it, most swear words are just intensifiers or things we say when we stub our toes. Asshole, however, has a particular meaning, referring to a person who flouts social conventions and aggressively asserts his privilege in a situation. He's the boss who makes his employees cower in fear, the "Don't you know who I am?" celebrity who demands special treatment, the entitled type A businessman who cuts to the front of the line. He's Donald Trump, archetypal asshole. The book is a little light on linguistics and belabors the same points too often. It probably would've made a better essay than a full length book, but Nunberg's insights are interesting and his writing is funny enough to make it a pretty rewarding read overall.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like a lot of Geoffrey Nunberg's radio essays about language, and this was part impetus for reading this book. It details various aspects of language, profanity, and culture values.

Some of the book examines the origins of the word in print and spoken English, arising around the time of World War II and how asshole replaced other previous terms like scoundrel, cur, and cad while also explaining the different nuances between the words, especially about awareness and intent. It was also interesting to see what words seemed to pair with asshole such as narcissistic and selfish.

The book also discusses the rise of people gleefully being assholes to piss off other people that one deems to be assholes themselves. This book was written in 2012, so it does not seem that troll had quite planted in the common lexicon at this point, but there is a lengthy description of talk radio, provocateurs, and other common 21st Century assholes. Quite eruditely, the book observed the appeal to some of Grade-A asshole Donald Trump. Unfortunately prophetic.

While different in many ways, and sometimes in disagreement with, Ascent of the A-Word is a good companion piece to On Bullshit

[Edwin Battistella · Rating 4 out of 5]

ASCENT OF THE A-WORD: ASSHOLISM, THE FIRST SIXTY YEARS is linguist Geoff Nunberg’s intriguing take not just on the word “a**hole,” complete with Google ngrams of that word plus “authenticity,” “incivility,” “entitlement,” “phoniness,” “narcissism,” “ yuppie,” and more. Nunberg gives both a linguistic analysis, showing that putative synonyms such as “cad,” “scoundrel,” “jerk,” and the like don’t have the same semantics and the social analysis, noting that the recentness of the usage suggests its emergence as an importance linguistic category (naming, he notes, follows not just ideas but ideas that become socially salient). He notes too that, for various reasons, “a**hole” is typically gender-specific, either because more males fit the definition or because other terms are used for narcissistic females.

Nunberg’s other key point is that the concept is of someone’s being an a**hole is a relatively recent one—mid-twentieth century-ish and that the social category of a**hole (or “a**holism,” as he calls it) is connected to an over-stepping sense of entitlement. Significantly, a**holism entails its complement—the anti-a**hole, who is an a**holes to a**holes. This collision of holes and anti-holes underlies much of political rhetorical and he rounds up the usual suspects as examples.

I’m still, though, not sure of the difference between an a**hole and an ass.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nunberg can write. His sentence structure is a thing of beauty.

This book explores 60 years of usage of the word "asshole," which is, I learn, a new entry into the scatalogical lexicon. Numberg suggests that the asshole is to us what the phony was to Holden Caufield; the social offender that captures a culture's attention, for good or for ill. He proposes Donald Trump as the definitive asshole who has captured our cultures attention, which once again makes me feel just a wee bit alienated from my culture as I hear "Donald Trump" and I stop listening.

Nunberg also suggests that what is fresh and special about the asshole as an appellation is that once someone is designated an asshole, it frees the rest of us to be an asshole back. Someone who has violated the social contract to whom we can violate it back.

Substantively, this troubles me. I strongly believe there is no them; there is only us. But Nunberg's hypothesis explains the conduct of a lot of good people I know and have worked with.

Anyhoo. There is much much more in this book that doesn't quite fit the theses (thesises?) I have proposed, so I may be wrong about what this book is about. On the other hand, Nunberg is a master of the segueway, so maybe this shouldn't trouble me.

A quick and fun read.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of current examples, across many areas. (day to day, music, politicos, military, etc)

notes:
xvi..read Dear As*hole, 101 tear out letters
1..cavuto first to be called a-hole on Fox
6..conservatives..race talk is just the collateral effect of free-floating outrage that seizes opportunistically on any inimical attribute that comes to hand.
8..partisans think of themselves as in the biz of infuriating the a-holes on the other side
112..larry david never misses an opp. to remonstrate indignantly w/the a-holes who plague daily life..pig-parkers, chat and cutters
122..wrestling: villain = heel, heroes = faces
210: Fanny Burney's advice: the more you're struck w/improprieties and misconduct in another, the greater should your observance & diligence, to avoid even the shadow of similar errors.
But...times when being a a-hole to someone who is being one is not only a right, but close to a moral duty, when you're obliged to say "mind your manners, a-hole."

publicaffairsbooks.com...twitter

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly informative about our current dialogue on politics and made Nunberg’s analysis of the history of the word asshole that much more interesting. Nunberg starts by pinpointing with a marvelous degree of sincerity the meaning of the term asshole, to whom it applies and what we are saying about them. He then uses this knowledge to track the use of the word through its genesis in the WWII American camps to the 2012 election season and what that reveals to our current discourse. Similarly he tracks the shift to modern usage in the 70’s with that decade’s obsession for self-realization and how we came to imbue it with the connotations that it currently carries. Lastly, his discussion of the gendered use of asshole also serves to shed light on the way in which even our insults are segregated between the sexes. Overall, this book was an incredibly insightful analysis of what the words we would least admit to using, say about us.

[John Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

The A word being discussed isn't awesome. To clarify, it isn't the word awesome, though many will agree that it is an awesome word. It's asshole. It definitely is in wide use these days! The author discusses the meaning of the word as well as its history, even including a list of people he considers assholes. I don't see the point of the list because the word is very subjective so inclusion on the list is a personal choice. This book is probably quite interesting to most people, even though it is a scholarly study written by a linguist. I enjoyed the history of its usage more than the definition. I was surprised to learn that this is a fairly new word. It was used by soldiers during WWII, coming into common use in the 60's and 70's. So I feel like a pioneer. It is hard to imagine not having it. The alternatives pale by comparison. I suppose, when I'm driving, the other drivers would just be idiots.

[jersey9000 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited about this book when I saw a Slate write up on it. So excited, in fact, that I got a copy as a gift for a friend of mine, then got my own. I hope he doesn't think I'm an asshole after reading this review, because it wasn't all that great. While the premise is good, it is incredibly sloppy in its presentation, and maybe should have been edited down. Oftentimes it reads like a series of essays rather than a cohesive whole, and this leads to lots of repetition. As an example, the whole explanation of why we would not call Osama Bin Ladin and asshole, but would call the guy who cut in front of us at the bank an asshole, is interesting the first time you read it. Here's the thing, though: in the first third of the book, the explain this point four times! What a bunch of assholes.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...that was not at all what I expected.

Given the title and celebrity pictures on the cover, I was expecting a humorous look at some of the more egregious examples of said behaviour.

Instead, this book provides a linguistical analysis of the rise of the titular term in common usage, teasing out the differences in nuance between this versus other oft used terms of endearment, and delving into the increasing prevalence of said affliction in public, and particularly political, discourse.

It was actually a pretty interesting read, though not a quick one. It started dragging a bit towards the end, speaking of which, this one's seemed a bit abrupt. Nonetheless, I thought the author did a reasonably good job of getting me to stop and consider seriously for a moment a word that all-to-often passes my lips without a second thought.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nunberg gets a slow start but by the time he dispenses with the throat clearing and hits the sections about the a-holes in politics, this book soars. A review of the first forty years of a-holes wasn't really needed.. If you find it excruciating to even be AROUND that guy..you'll find this big cringe book like watching THE OFFICE with footnotes. Nunberg shreds his way through the sanctimony of the Left and the Right and the academics in between, then starts in on The Donald. Sure, Trump is a fat turkey to shoot at, but Nunberg isn't fronting for anyone and he's interested in what's driving the ascent of the A word and those who personify. I found this book intelligent and funny. In the end though, didn't I know ..the bumper sticker is right: Mean People suck.

[Ron Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I went into with high hopes and expectations, but came out with only mild interest. In the spirit of "On Bullshit," by Harry Frankfurt, the book examines the history of the use of the A-word, and the evolution of its meaning and perception. It was interesting to find that the use of the word is a relatively new phenomenon, and the review of its various uses is rather thorough, but it's not a book that is going to amuse you on every page; more of a quasi-scholarly review of a not-so-serious subject.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

An asshole of a book, this excellent little asshole wrote a book which is both funny and insightful. Using the lens of the word, "asshole," Nunberg, a linguist, tracks the changing mores and a cultural phenomenon while also ending by critiquing a particularly relevant strain of American culture. Though Nunberg wrote this well before Trumps election, reading it after the election is more fascinating. You will finish the book thinking of creative ways to sprinkle your speech with little turd of a word.

Asshole.

[Radhika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geoffrey Nunberg’s Ascent of the A-word (2012) is as much about crude language, as it about the concept, or the modern phenomenon it stands for, and the values it expresses.

Nunberg is a fine writer, and I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. Ascent of the A-word has a lot of political and cultural references, some from half a century ago, and while I won’t pretend that I got every single one of them, I’ll say that I found this book on insults rather educational.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and quick exploration of obscenity, vulgarity, and the difference between the two. Nunberg focuses his discussion around the history of "the a-word," from its origins among World War II GIs through the present day, relying both on cultural observation and Google ngrams to identify trends. A thoughtful book about a little-thought-about word. If you're on the fence, listen to Nunberg's interview on the NPR show Bullseye, which captures the books content and tone well.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Nunberg's exploration of assholes and assholism. I enjoyed how he explored the linguistic features of "asshole" and how that shows us so much about our own society.

Well-written, this book made me laugh out loud numerous times. For Berkeley professor he did a good job ripping the left and the right in an entertaining fashion. Worth a read!

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Took me a week to read a mere 44 pages and each one was a slog. I mean, a book like this should at least try to be fun, right (I've seen it done for topics as mundane as chemistry, so I don't think I'm asking too much). So let's just say I'm disinterested in continuing to suffer through the author's endless unfun analysis.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

There are parts of this book that are interesting, especially those that are historical. The portions dedicated to the assholism of current politics are not. The author tries to stay even-handed but does not succeed.

All told, probably not worth the effort to get through, even if it's a welcome break from weightier reading.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up after work and finished it in 2 hours. Maybe it's the context of the book being about a curse word but this was a smooth and fun read. I would highly recommend picking this up. Best random by chance purchase in a while.