Description

Book Synopsis
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.

Trade Review
"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

The City in Slang

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    A Paperback by Irving Lewis Allen

    £18.76

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    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Fri 18 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Oxford University Press
      Published 4/20/1995 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN-13 9780195092653
      978-0195092653
      ISBN-10 0195092651
      Also in:
      Dialect, slang and jargon

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      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.

      Trade Review
      "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

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