Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (Paperback)

by Raymond Williams (Author) "Aesthetic first appeared in English in C19, and was not common before mC19..." (more)
Key Phrases: French Revolution, United States, Adam Smith (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A great asset for freshmen for definitions in the writing process."--Abdul L. Taj, Jackson State University

"A first-rate work, both stimulating and provocative."--Lawrence M. Davis, Ball State University

Praise for the first edition:

"An invaluable book....A unique coda to the words of one of our most original and provocative thinkers."--Harpers

"Stimulating."--The New York Times

"Keywords is useful and stimulating to all who work with words or merely love them."--The Wall Street Journal

"Writers, scholars, and others concerned with the interaction between the changed meanings of words will find Keywords current and informative."--Booklist

"The book's greatest value, perhaps, is its exemplification of how all of us should respond to the words we hear and use: with surprise, distrust, curiosity, and unflagging vigilance."--The Yale Review

"This book is an erudite, elegant, and awful warning to anybody tempted to lay down the lexicographical law, in order to apply one authoritative fixed sense to a highly variable and controversial value word."--The Times (London)

"Readers of Williams' earlier works will find fresh rewards in these insights into sematics, sociology, anthropology, and history."--Library Journal

Product Description
Now revised to include new words and updated essays, Keywords focuses on the sociology of language, demonstrating how the key words we use to understand our society take on new meanings and how these changes reflect the political bent and values of society.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Rev Sub edition (May 16, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195204697
• ISBN-13: 978-0195204698
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #114,917 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a unique book, July 14, 2001

By	Manuel Ortega R. "[e-mail]" (Stanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews

one of its kind; it is not a dictionary (not even a technical one); it is not a book on the etimology of words; it will hardly improve your talking skills. Rather, it is a fascinating book on the constant change of culture and how this is reflected in everyday (and not so everyday) words of the English language. You will walk away humble, overwhelmed by the richness and the violence of culture's impact on words.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential resource, August 29, 2005

By	Alexander S. Gourlay - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Williams has a point of view that readers must take into account, but perhaps all lexicographers should be as overt about their assumptions as he is in this eminently readable historical glossary of the terms that shape Western thought. It's a good idea when you are writing anything to stop at some point and look up Williams' account of a few of the words that you have been using -- it's guaranteed to focus the mind.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Joy of Having Raymond Williams's KEYWORDS Via-Amazon.com, September 23, 2007

By	Hugo Pezzini "Film and Literature (commentato... (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had seen a 2007 Portuguese-language translation (first Brazilian edition of this work), of Raymond Williams's 1976 exceptional English book KEYWORDS, at the Saraiva Bookstore of Rio de Janeiro. Besides the drawback of having to read a translation, I had within my hands a hard-cover, bulky--and expensive--book (for s/he who is on a trip this is not "handy" at all!)

As soon as I came back to New York, I logged in to my amazon.com account and found an affordably priced, brand-new Oxford UP paperback (in the original English, of course) which has been delighting me daily ever since. The delivery by Amazon was as fast and as safe as it can be. Never Amazon failed to meet the day of promissed delivery (nor have I ever had purchased merchandise lost on its way, never a defective object of any kind--from a big-screen plasma TV set to a mere CD).
Congrats to Amazon once more for being the most dependable and reliable "virtual shopping center" within the internet.

With respect to Raymond Williams's work: I recommend KEYWORDS to everyone who is interested in the mutability of the meaning --and the growth or wane-- of significant words and their power, "as time goes by." Williams has made an in-depth analysis of the cultural, social, economic, political, and "academic" semantic modifications of an excellent selection of "key" words used in the English language. All of them are prominent signifiers that are or have been common currency among various social strata that attributed them different meanings according to historical change and determining circumstances that provoked those semantic shifts.
As usual, I can't help but recommending to the reader Amazon as the best mean to have this book ASAP.
Cheers!
Hugo Pezzini