The Story of English: Third Revised Edition

by Robert McCrum, Robert Macneil, William Cran

Overview

Now revised, The Story of English is the first book to tell the whole story of the English language. Originally paired with a major PBS miniseries, this book presents a stimulating and comprehensive record of spoken and written English—from its Anglo-Saxon origins some two thousand years ago to the present day, when English is the dominant language of commerce and culture with more than one billion English speakers around the world. From Cockney, Scouse, and Scots to Gulla, Singlish, Franglais, and the latest African American slang, this sweeping history of the English language is the essential introduction for anyone who wants to know more about our common tongue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142002315
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/31/2002
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	536,068
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.95(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert McCrum is the author of six novels and My Year Off: Rediscovering Life After a Stroke. Now literary editor of The Observer, he is working on an authorized biography of P. G. Wodehouse.

Robert MacNeil was the co-anchor of PBS's The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. His books include two volumes of memoirs and three novels including his latest, Breaking News.

William Cran is the executive producer for the television series The Story of English.

Hometown:

London, England

Date of Birth:

July 7, 1953

Place of Birth:

Cambridge, England

Education:

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England, 1972-75; University of Pennsylvania, 1975-76

Table of Contents

The Story of EnglishList of Maps
New Introduction to the Third Edition
Introduction: Speaking of English
1. An English-Speaking World
2. The Mother Tongue
3. A Muse of Fire
4. The Guid Scots Tongue
5. The Loaded Weapon
6. Black on White
7. Pioneers! O Pioneers!
8. The Echoes of an English Voice
9. The New Englishes
10. Next Year's Words
Notes and Sources
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Highly enjoyable...A first-rate introduction to one of the most fascinating of subjects." —The New York Times

"Rarely has the English language been scanned so brightly and broadly in a single volume." —The San Francisco Chronicle

Editorial Reviews

"Highly enjoyable...A first-rate introduction to one of the most fascinating of subjects." —The New York Times

"Rarely has the English language been scanned so brightly and broadly in a single volume." —The San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

A tie-in for a nine-part television series to be broadcast over PBS beginning in September, this is a wide-ranging account of the travels and changes of the English tongue from its beginnings to tomorrow, from England to America to Australia to Africa and India and the Pacific. Despite an occasionally perceptible British bias, the authors have tried hard to paint a colorful, vivid picture of the many faces and varieties of English. The text is never dull, but is enlivened by innumerable examples and by interviews with representative individuals: a minister in Scotland, a couple from the Appalachians, a storekeeper in Newfoundland, a Philadelphia shoeshine man, a cockney fruitseller, an Australian farm family, the president of Sierra Leone, a writing professor in India. A readable book that all public libraries should have. BOMC alternate. Catherine V. von Schon, SUNY, Stony Brook

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