Perspective

Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil, the authors of The Story of English, are professional journalists and writers who composed The Story of English to explain the current variations in English in their developments for popular consumption. The Story of English became an international best eller as a result. The authors apologize for not writing a more scholarly book at the outset, and in fact, the authors are not experts in the English language on the whole. Nonetheless, the perspective the authors bring to the book is one of deep admiration for the language.

The authors begin the book focused on generating a general outline of the variations in the English language. They explain how widespread and influential the English has become, how it is the international language of science, commerce, and diplomacy and how unique it is in containing the most words of any language in...