"Entertaining and thought-provoking…Byrne’s enthusiasm for her esoteric subject is contagious, damn it." —Melissa Dahl, New York Times Book Review In this

A hilarious collection of the most resplendent and refined examples of colorful language. Swearing really can be a beautiful thing as this collection of elegant

It may be starred, beeped, and censored -- yet profanity is so appealing that we can't stop using it. In the funniest, clearest study to date, Benjamin Bergen e

Tracing the history of swearing from ancient Anglo-Saxon traditions and those of the Middle Ages, through Shakespeare, the Enlightenment and the Victorians, to

A humorous, trenchant and fascinating examination of how Western culture's taboo words have evolved over the millennia