Irving Lewis Allen provides an insightful history of the rise of New York as a metropolis and the accompanying slang that surrounded it. Anecdotal and at times analytical, this book is both a lexicon of slang and a history of recent casual language.

About the Author
Author of Unkind Words (1990) and The Language of Ethnic Conflict (1983)

Reviews
"A lively piece of popular scholarship."--The New Yorker "Mr. Allen has written a 'book on words about the city' that makes a provocative cultural history. Like Whitman, who is the patron saint of the volume and whose words open each chapter, 'Mr. Allen is 'through Manhattan's streets...walking, these things gathering."--New York Times "An unusual and interesting cultural history of urban life....A readable study of interest to urban and cultural historians and linguists as well as a general audience."--Publishers Weekly "Charmingly written."--Contemporary Sociology



Book Information
ISBN 9780195092653
Author Irving Lewis Allen
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 417g
Dimensions(mm) 203mm * 136mm * 17mm