Books on History of AmE?

[Aaron E. Drews]

> What are the best books out there that provide a basic history
> specifically of
> American English? I'm looking for a real history, not something with a
> contemporary survey like Wolfram and Schilling-Estes.
>
> Thank you.
>

H.L. Menken, _The American Language_ (1936)
W.N. Francis, something like American English
J.L. Dillard

These are the closest I've been able to come to a "real history" with the
libraries at my access.  For some reason, I don't have these in my own
bibliography, which is shocking.  You might also want to check out the ADS
website, because this question has come up before.

Good luck,
Aaron

________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron      Departments of English Language and
aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                    Theoretical & Applied Linguistics

 "MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
  --Death