OK

Metcalf traces the history of OK from its unusual birth as a jokey mis-transcribing of all correct in the 19th century, its rapid growth in various facets of American life, and its success overseas as the English word that all non-Americans know.

Allan Metcalf is Professor of English at MacMurray College and Executive Secretary of the American Dialect Society. He is the author of many other books on language, including most recently Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush (2004). He participates in the "Lingua Franca" blog of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Prologue: The Oddity of OK
Chapter 1: The Joke
Chapter 2: Old Kinderhook
Chapter 3: The Jackson Myth
Chapter 4: Telegraphic OK
Chapter 5: The Business of OK
Chapter 6: OK in Literature
Chapter 7: Presidential "okeh"
Chapter 8: Okey-Dokey
Chapter 9: The Practical OK
Chapter 10: The Philosophical OK: Twentieth Century
Chapter 11: The Psychological OK
Chapter 12: The Philosophical OK: Twenty-first Century
Epilogue: OK Around the World