Robert McCrum

The coauthor of the bestselling book and television series The Story of English discusses how Anglo-American has become the language of the world, and describes the changes that English has brought to far-away cultures in distant places.

How the English Language Became the World's Language

Globish

Coleman McCormick

This is a nice overview of the history of modern English from its origins to its current state as the world's lingua franca. I was looking for something a bit more technical to understand better why English captured footholds where it has, but this tells of the cultural and historical events that led to English being adopted throughout Britain's empire in the formative years from the 17th to 20th centuries. A better book about the technical lineage of English is McWhorter's Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, which talks of English's origins as a hybrid of many disparate languages.

Of particular note with this book is the way the author compares English to other widely-spread languages, to try and determine why English may have been "stickier" than others. An enjoyable book, particularly for those more interested in the history of language, rather than linguistics.

Globish How the English Language Became the World's Language

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