It’s not as if “Seinfeld” didn’t have its critics. Writing in New York magazine, John Leonard called the show a “Cheez Doodle of urban fecklessness.” The New Republic’s longtime literary editor, Leon Wieseltier, a professional lowerer of the boom, said it was “the worst, last gasp of Reaganite, grasping, materialistic, narcissistic, banal self-absorption.” Newman, the show’s villain, reduced these sentiments to two words: “Hello, Jerry.”

For many of us, though, “Seinfeld” was and is, in reruns, a dependable pleasure, an “I Love Lucy” or “The Honeymooners” for our time. This sitcom, which ran from 1989 to 1998, was topical and smart. Recall, if you will, that “Alf” was a hit when “Seinfeld” was conceived. It was genuinely funny, dry as a good vermouth, eminently quotable and — yada, yada, yada — here is an intelligent book about it.

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is a former staffer at Entertainment Weekly, whose books include a history of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” In “Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything,” she delivers a solid history of the series, beginning with two largely unknown stand-up comedians, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, cracking jokes in a Korean deli in 1988 and realizing: This kind of banter could be a show.

And Ms. Armstrong can write. Here is her precise description of the two men at the time: “Seinfeld had dark hair blown dry into the classic ’80s pouf, while David maintained a magnificent Jew-fro, dented a bit in the middle by his receding hairline. Seinfeld’s delivery often ascended to a high-pitched warble; David favored a guttural grumble that could become a yell without warning.”