What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves

Author: Benjamin K. Bergen
Rating: 4 Stars
Review By: Shana

​Fun and accessible book about profanity - from what we find objectionable, how words evolve over time, and how we react mentally and physiologically.  

Bergen not only examines what people find most offensive (words that are slurs, slang for body effluvia or body parts, or old school blasphemy) and how reflexive profanity is processed in the brain, but also how we try to restrict, repurpose, and even reappropriate the profane and inappropriate.  

The book is very funny, though definitely not for those who are easily offended by foul language. A good popular science book that gives a lot to think about and will make you listen to four-letter words in a different way.