Biting the Wax Tadpole
by Elizabeth Little | 
The Language Wars
by Henry Hitchings | 
The Mother Tongue
by Bill Bryson | 
Made in America
by Bill Bryson | 
Expletive Deleted
by Ruth Wajnryb | 
The Power of Babel
by John McWhorter | 
The Etymologicon
by Mark Forsyth | 
English as a Second F*cking Language
by Sterling Johnson | 
The First Word
by Christine Kenneally | 
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue
by John McWhorter | 
How Language Works
by David Crystal |
The Adventure of English
by Melvyn Bragg | 
Crazy English
by Richard Lederer | 
Euphemania
by Ralph Keyes | 
The Mother Tongue – English And How It Got That Way
by Bill Bryson | 
Our Dumb Century
by Scott Dikkers | 
Mail-Order Mysteries
by Kirk Demarais | 
The War for Late Night
by Bill Carter | 
Completely Mad
by Maria Reidelbach | 
Caddyshack
by Chris Nashawaty |
Some people may dismiss puns as the lowest form of humor. But this attitude is a relatively recent development in the sweep of history. In The Pun Also Rises, John Pollack -- a former Presidential Speechwriter for Bill Clinton, and winner of the world pun championship -- explains how punning revolutionized language and made possible the rise of modern civilization. Integrating evidence from history, pop culture, literature, comedy, science, business and everyday life, this book will make readers reconsider everything they think they know about puns.