Synopses & Reviews
"A penetrating account of the long debate about the kind of public language appropriate for a democratic society. . . . Cmiel manages to do justice to both sides."Christopher Lasch, author of
The Culture of Narcissism"Every scholar interested in the English language will put this book next to Mencken and Baugh. It will be indispensable to writing the social history of English into the 20th Century."Joseph Williams, author of Origins of the English Language
Synopsis
Democratic Eloquence tells the dramatic story of how Americans thought and argued about the English language between 1776 and 1900. The rise of a popular democracy in the early nineteenth century rudely challenged gentlemanly assumptions that only the well-educated should be able to speak in public. The popular challenge stimulated discussions about how grammars, dictionaries, even the English Bible should be written and what the idiom of a democratic society should be.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 328-333) and index.
About the Author
Kenneth Cmiel is Associate Professor of History at the University of Iowa.