History of American English text books

[Dave Wilton]

Stay far, far away from Bryson. He's an entertaining writer, but a hideously
inept researcher.

Seth Lerer's excellent "Inventing English" has several chapters on American
English. This may be the best single-volume history of English out there.

Crystal's "Stories of English" is also very good. It has a single chapter on
American and world English--plus a couple on recent developments in the
language.

Bragg's "The Adventure of English" has several chapters on American English,
but I haven't read it all the way through.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Patti Kurtz
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 5:58 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: History of American English text books

Hi everyone.  This spring I'll be teaching a history of the English
language course for the first time.  I've chosen a text based on many of
the comments here to an earlier post asking about such books-- thanks
for those ideas even though I wasn't the one asking.

But I've noticed most texts focus mainly on British English.  I wanted
to include some history of American English (not a lot, but some).  The
only book I've noticed with that focus is by Bill Bryson (Made in
America) and it seems rather like a folk etymology, at least to me.

Does anyone know of any books or even chapters in books or articles that
trace the historical development of American English that would be
sophomores and juniors in college?

Thanks.

Patti Kurtz
Minot State University

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