Finished - "Made in America" - Bill Bryson (Audiobook)

I hadn't really known what Bill Bryson's book "Made in America" was about.  It primarily focuses upon language development of American English, which proves a launchpoint to discuss details of the U.S. founding fathers, the Wright Brothers, life in the early colonies of the U.S. words taken from specific events, or times.

All in all, an interesting read.  As a non-American, it was a little heavy on the American worldview, however, given the thesis of the book, not really surprising or off-thesis.

I found his conclusions about political correctness odd - he does say it is laced with subjectivity, which is true.  He pointed out that some words like "manipulate" and "mandible" come from roots unrelated to the male gender, even if some on the politically correct side would like to erase all "man" labels.  He also pointed out that some of the wishes to remove "man" in all words (or all references using the word "black" like Blacksmith) is not necessary and only considerations where it is reasonable to infer that the existing word, through usage, would imply a gender differentiation (e.g. "Chariman" implying only males, while "Chair" being gender neutral).

What always amuses me about this debate is that the goal seems to be to create odd words, regardless of whether or not the "gender" was removed.  Why is "mankind" evil and "humankind" OK?  Or "Fireman" evil and "Fireperson" OK?  In both cases there still exists a gender-specific root, hu-MAN and per-SON - both of which would have drawn ire if they were the commonly used words.

I can't say that I like the PC movement as a "starter".  I might agree that "chariman" is male, but would be happy with "chairwoman" as the exact, parallel word for the female in that role.  I might also agree that "chair" is a suitable substitute for both.  I believe some form of gender-neutrality in language would evolve naturally - what I take exception to is that those who feel the need to force the change often wish to go much further in pushing a broad agenda than the words alone (e.g. looking at all acts of violence perpetuated by males as "natural male aggression" requiring prison,  while infanticide or violence perpetrated by females as "illness" requiring compassion; or expecting a 50/50 gender split in jobs, even if applicants are 10x more likely in gender A than B).