Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It started out simply enough: All I did was go to a toy store..." (more)
Key Phrases: nerd stereotype, nerd glasses, called nerds, United States, Star Trek, Man of Reflection (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this intriguing treatise, child therapist and psychology professor Anderegg takes a wry and well-rounded look at the legacy of everyone's (least) favorite schoolyard epithet, getting deep into the history of an idea as well as the nuts and bolts of childhood "stereotype acquisition." Beginning with a "Field Guide to Nerds" ("or Why Nerds are So Gay"), Anderegg considers typical nerd traits (and includes a "Nerd Test" copied from "Deluxe NERD Glasses" package copy), parses out the subtle but important differences between "nerd" (emphasizing appearance) and "geek" (emphasizing intelligence), looks at the cultural history and rising profile of American anti-intellectualism, from Ichabod Crane and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Seinfeld and Beauty and the Geek, as well as more recent developments in nerd-related medical diagnoses like autism and Asperger's. Knowledgeable, charming and self-deprecating throughout, Anderegg is at his best when discussing the specific cases of children he's worked with, but readers should be happy to tag along as he occasionally wanders off point (contemplating, say, the Freudian implications of his subject). For educators, therapists and others interested in child psychology, this makes an insightful, if perhaps overstuffed, resource.
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Review

"In this intriguing treatise, child therapist and psychology professor Anderegg takes a wry and well-rounded look at the legacy of everyone's (least) favorite schoolyard epithet, getting deep into the history of an idea as well as the nuts and bolts of childhood "stereotype acquisition." Beginning with a "Field Guide to Nerds" ("or Why Nerds are So Gay"), Anderegg considers typical nerd traits (and includes a "Nerd Test" copied from "Deluxe NERD Glasses" package copy), parses out the subtle but important differences between "nerd" (emphasizing appearance) and "geek" (emphasizing intelligence), looks at the cultural history and rising profile of American anti-intellectualism, from Ichabod Crane and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Seinfeld and Beauty and the Geek, as well as more recent developments in nerd-related medical diagnoses like autism and Asperger's. Knowledgeable, charming and self-deprecating throughout, Anderegg is at his best when discussing the specific cases of children he's worked with, but readers should be happy to tag along as he occasionally wanders off point (contemplating, say, the Freudian implications of his subject). For educators, therapists and others interested in child psychology, this makes an insightful, if perhaps overstuffed, resource."
-- Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; 1 edition (December 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585425907
• ISBN-13: 978-1585425907
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #508,370 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The uniquely American prejudice, January 30, 2008

By	wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Prejudice is a nasty word - no educated person would tolerate bias based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or dozens of other individual differentiations. It's still OK to make fun of nerds, though. (Q: Do you know how to tell when a nerd likes you? A: He looks at your feet when he talks to you.) Anderegg digs into that prejudice with this book. He finds that its roots run surprisingly deep in American culture, and that its branches and leaves cast real shadows on America's future.

Remember Ichabod Crane and the legend of Sleepy Hollow? Ichabod, the town schoolmaster, dresses badly and looks funny. Brom, his nemesis, is popular, handsome, strong, and uneducated. In the end, Ichabod loses the girl, Brom gets her, Brom runs Ichabod out of town, and at least some of the townsfolk decide as a result that book learning would only harm their children. Fast forward almost two hundred years to the "Math is Hard" Barbie doll, stopping at presidential elections with educated losers, from Andrew Jackson to Al Gore. In most other popular cultures, the smart guy is also the athletic, happy, romantic, handsome, and well-liked one. In the US, the intellectual guy in the typical movie is none of those - and "transcends" his role only if he abandons it.

As a clinical child pyschologist, Anderegg explores some of the reasons why children might pick on those who do well academically. Whatever the reasons, children in grade school use "nerd" as an epithet that has real power to hurt, whether any one calling or called that has a strong idea of what it means. By seventh grade or so, the kids' herding instinct is also a hurting instinct. Despite the demonstrated irrationality of being "popular," kids will do anything to avoid being unpopular - and being a nerd is the easiest and perhaps most fixable way to be unpopular. If a kid is determined to avoid academic success, you can bet they'll succeed in avoiding it. By high school, the non-nerds have already given up literally years of exploration and education in math and physical sciences. Only the rarest among high school students can overcome that and go on to college and a career in technology.

And people wonder why more colleges graduate more PE majors than EEs. Well-meaning economic incentives come years too late to unravel the prejudices laid down earlier. If the math nerd is the one who never gets laid (regardless of whether anyone else does), would a $100 reward for acing algebra attract many high schoolers? Do the math.

Anderegg offers a few postive suggestions for parents of potential outcasts. Very often, even doting parents don't realize the power of kids' peer pressure, and a few innocuous aids to fitting in will go a long way. He also claims back Asperger's as a strictly defined medical term - as something present only if it debilitates the individual, not as a casual excuse or insult for someone whose focus isn't where the speaker's is. Without the shrillness of a nerd pride activist, Anderegg shows clearly why nerd prejudice has such far-reaching implications.

-- wiredweird, who calls himself a nerd

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Deconstructed Nerd, March 30, 2008

By	Michael DENNISUK "cc coach" (trenton, michigan USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased this book after hearing an interview with Dr. Anderegg on the "Bob Edwards Show". I work with middle school and high school students and I was looking forward to reading this book. It was a big disappointment for several reasons.

Dr. Anderegg spends a great deal of time deconstructing the nerd/geek and the myths that surround them. Some of this gets very tedious and, I believe, will lose the lay reader (I have a fair amount of background in this area and he almost lost me at mid-book).

Dr. Anderegg gets VERY preachy at times. This particularly true in his concluding chapter. It's funny because the people most likely to buy and read the book, are the ones who are least likely to need the preaching.

I would have liked more conversations with kids about nerds, geeks and social isolation. That would have been interesting. The chapter titles are clever, I only wish the content had been on the same level.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not Revenge of the Nerds. , February 8, 2008

By	C. Ries (Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nerds is a thoughtful and insightful look into the reasons for an accepted discrimination present in American society. It approaches its topic with humor and an expert's eye.

Any parent or teacher (I have taught sophomores for 14 years now) should definitely read this book. I found it enlightening and revealing.

You will never look at Ichabod Crane the same again...

Highly recommended.