Benjamin Nugent's book might have had its genesis in grade school:
"I was in fourth grade when I first observed that people who liked D&D [Dungeons & Dragons] -- people like me -- tended to be the same ones who liked to play with computers. Staggered by my first thrill of nationhood, I cast about for an explanation. It seemed to me that what the two activities had in common is that they demanded no physical prowess of any kind. Therefore the children who carried around the Dungeon Master's Guide and How to Master LOGO were distinguished by their intelligence. They didn't make time to exercise their bodies because they were committed to the exercise of their brains."
Nugent has probably just summed up the experience of millions of American nerds, from Bill Gates to the anonymous people who work in your IT department and (ahem) write book reviews.
But "American Nerd" (Scribner, 224 pages, $20) is more than just a memoir for the socially challenged. Although filled with personal confessions that will induce cringes in anyone who has ever been on a debate team or rolled a 20-sided die, he aims to put nerddom in its proper historical and cultural context.
In other words, he aims to give us our story. And he succeeds.
He anchors the idea of nerd ostracization in 19th-century England, where the birth of a mechanized society led to a fear of technology and those who manipulated it (see Frankenstein), which was followed by a fear that young men being raised in cities were becoming sissified. This led to the demand they partake in "rough sports which call for pluck, endurance and physical address" (said Teddy Roosevelt), which led to a negative stereotype of people who spend their time studying, which finally led to slide-rule-carrying "nerd" (a character named "Nurdly" first appears in a magazine at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964).
And although he includes obligatory references to nerd icons such as "Saturday Night Live's" Loopners, Nugent also has serious nerd-related looks at Asperger's syndrome and stereotyping of black, Jewish and Asian men.
In recent years, nerds have reversed the social order, as the Internet era turned some of them into billionaires, nerdy fashions became trendy and nerds even became stars of a novel that won a Pulitzer Prize (by self-admitted nerd Junot Diaz). Perhaps the future will see nerds ascend to heights only dreamed of by fans of "Revenge of the Nerds." When that day comes, Nugent will go down as one of the new nation's founding fathers, one who gave us our history.
