# Doing Our Own Thing

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/john-mcwhorter/doing-our-own-thing

![Doing Our Own Thing](https://quivercdn.com/covers/arrow/john-mcwhorter/doing-our-own-thing_978-00-9944-535-7.jpg?v=2026-04-22%2007%3A34%3A58)

- Authors: [John McWhorter](https://www.bookquiver.com/john-mcwhorter)
- Language: en_GB
- Published: 2005-11-03

## Description

Once languages become written, they change. Only in writing does language develop the artfulness and richness that we associate with a Shakespeare, a Proust or a Whitman. Yet over the last forty years, the English-language has effectively gone into reverse - taking our lead from America and the legacy of the 1960s, our culture increasingly privileges the oral over the written, spurning the art of elaborated, 'written'-style language in favour of returning to the state of a spoken culture. Parallel developments have occurred in music. In this controversial and thought-provoking book, John McWhorter argues that the 1960's rejection of cultural traits associated with the Establishment, as well as a democratic celebration of what anyone can do over what requires training or talent, has led to our culture being increasingly impoverished, both intellectually and artistically...

## Editions

### Doing Our Own Thing

- Publisher: arrow
- ISBN: 978-00-9944-535-7
- Pages: 304
- Published: 2005-11-03
- Language: en_GB

### Doing Our Own Thing

- Publisher: avery
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-05-9333-054-8
- Published: 2004-09-09
- Language: en_US