This is a critical examination of George Carlin (1937-2008), a counterculture icon and one of the most influential comedians of our time, who broke down free speech barriers and fearlessly questioned the American way of life through the words we use. In "Seven Dirty Words", journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present date, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred. A critical biography, "Seven Dirty Words" is an insightful (and, of course, hilarious) examination of Carlin's body of work as it pertained to its cultural times, and the man who created it, from his early days as a more-or-less conventional comedian to his stunning transformation to the subversive comedic voice of the emerging counterculture. Sullivan also chronicles Carlin's struggles with censorship, drugs, as well the full-blown renaissance he experienced in the 1990s, both personally and professionally, when he became an elder statesman to a generation of younger comics who revered him. "Seven Dirty Words" is nothing less that the definitive biography of an American master who changed the world, and also a work of cultural commentary which quantifies George Carlin's extraordinary legacy.