Figures of Speech

Tim Cassedys fascinating study examines the role that language played at the turn of the nineteenth century as a marker of ones identity. During this time of revolution (U.S., French, and Haitian) and globalization, language served as a way to categorize people within a world that appeared more diverse than ever. Linguistic differences, especially among English-speakers, seemed to validate the emerging national, racial, local, and regional identity categories that took shape in this new world order. Focusing on six eccentric characters of the timefrom the woman known as Princess Caraboo to wordsmith Noah WebsterCassedy shows how each put language at the center of their identities and lived out the possibilities of their eras linguistic ideas. The result is a highly entertaining and equally informative look at how perceptions about who spoke what languageand how they spoke itdetermined the shape of communities in the British American colonies and beyond. This engagingly written story is sure to appeal to historians of literature, culture, and communication; to linguists and book historians; and to general readers interested in how ideas about English developed in the early United States and throughout the English-speaking world.