The WORDS WE LIVE BY [Hardcover]

Brian Burrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 4, 1997

Brian Burrell's splendid collection shows that many of the phrases we once lived by can still have resonance today. A comprehensive, fascinating treasure trove of American common sense and whimsy, The Words We Live By presents a sentimental rediscovery of a lost era in American history. Burrell's work was inspired by his father, an obsessive collector of words and a chronic nostalgia buff who traveled widely with his family, introducing them to the landmarks, monuments, and other symbols of America's past. Throughout his life, he clipped or wrote down memorable phrases, quotes, mottoes, and quips, both the silly and the profound, the playful and the maudlin. Burrell has lovingly compiled his father's collection of scrapbooks, complementing them with extraordinary research into the origins of America's civic ethics, to produce a truly memorable and inspirational work of historical reference. More than just a compendium of classic American wit and wisdom, The Words We Live By brings this material to life with poignantly told stories, forgotten anecdotes, and deeply considered meditations on the meaning of the words that have shaped the American nation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With a historian's tenacity and the insight of a literary critic, Brian Burrell's zeal for his subject is apparent on every page of The Words We Live By. He writes about the origins and significance of some of the most famous sayings in English, from the Hippocratic oath to Murphy's Law, from the golden rule (22 versions) to mottoes on buildings and monuments across America. Burrell's zeal was inherited from his father, who collected these mottoes over years of excursions and business trips. By adding intelligent historical commentary, Burrell has succeeded in reviving the essential wisdom that lies dormant in words that are more than just words.

From Library Journal

This book by Burrell (Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) is at once a treasury of well-loved quotations, an inquiry into the twisted past of much of Americans' received wisdom, and commentary that ranges from law codes to ethics to architecture. In chapters that treat creeds, oaths, pledges, codes of conduct, advice, mottoes, maxims, slogans, and inscriptions, Burrell serves up a bewitching brew of history, humor, anecdote, and good sense to show that we really don't understand much of what we think we know about the words we live by. The second half of the book is a compendium of texts, some of which are discussed in the narrative. More illustrations would have aided the readers' understanding of the chapter on inscriptions, but that caveat aside, this is an intriguing and entertaining book that should prove popular with a general audience.?David B. Mattern, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1ST edition (July 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684830019
• ISBN-13: 978-0684830018
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,524,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable Compendium of Ideas that Guide Our Lives, April 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The WORDS WE LIVE BY (Hardcover)

Brian Burrell's book, "The Words we Live By" is a unique and quirky resource. Within its pages he follows in his father's path, collecting and attempting to understand the creeds, mottoes and pledges that have shaped the United States. Burrell's book starts with the Golden Rule, and notes how it has been mentioned by all major religions, and mentioned by those with none. He also discusses oaths, the Pledge of Allegiance, family mottoes, and even words carved in stone upon our public buildings.

With such diverse sources Burrell has quite a task, and attempts to categorize the various sayings, creeds, calls, and business codes of ethics into a coherent package. For the most part he is successful, although there is some redundancy in the text. But for those of us who enjoy ethics, and who wish to understand what motivates people to perform at their best, this book is a rare and interesting resource. Where else could you find The Hippocratic Oath, The Declaration of Principles of the Pacific Ice Cream Manufacturer's Association, AND the text carved upon the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

The book is well footnoted, and contains valuable pictures of some monuments or other visual sources discussed. It can be read from cover-to-cover, or enjoyed as a casual pick-up book. With such a expansive document, some items are omitted, and sometimes more detail would be appreciated. For instance, it would have been interesting if he had discussed more how monuments can distort words or events. Nevertheless, this book will provide those interested in ethical standards and guiding principles embedded within society a terrific and valuable reference. It is a pleasure to recommend this book.

3 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting though not a comprehensive compilation, January 1, 1998

By 

Albert L. Weeks "aweeks" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The WORDS WE LIVE BY (Hardcover)

Mr. Burrell hit on an interesting idea for a book: a compilation of just about every well-known motto, oath, pledge, et al., an historian could think of all cast under the rubrics of "Words We Live By." However, the book, though for the most part a good read, is flawed because of its omissions. The author, Burrell, for some odd reason left out one of the most important types of oaths ever sworn--in this case, by heads of state: the Coronation Oath. Historically, this type of oath is crucial in understanding the way in which medieval kings, though in some ways powerful, nevertheless were viewed, as per the oath, as servants of God and the people. "Under God" meant that the king had to observe Christian ethics and common law, including a just rule over the monarch's people. This became the forerunner of the notion under democracy that rulers are servants of the people, that no law stands higher than that of God and/or the constitution. Were it not for the coronation oath and feudal oaths as well, it is doubtful that Western mankind would have provided the fundamentals of democracy. The author also omitted any of the several types of pledges and oaths sworn at various levels in totalitarian states. Since Lenin's Russia was the first such state and regarded as a model to be followed by subsequent totalitarian states (Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany), it stands to reason that it would have been appropriate to include such words that those systems "lived by"! Instead, the author uses up space with a good deal of redundant preaching against such unseemly characters as, say, Sen. Joseph McCarthy. There is, in fact, an aura of political correctness hovering over Burrell's book but this is largely compensated for by the inclusion of much interesting, straight-quoted material in Part 2 of his book, where the original-source quotes are located. In the next edition, if there is one, the author would be advised to take some of the above criticism seriously.