Tony Crowley, Language in history: Theories and texts. (The politics of language series.) London & New York: Routledge, 1996. Pp. viii, 215. Pb $18.95.

Abstract

Crowley's research into eighteenth-, twentieth-, and especially nineteenth-century writings about the English language is rare in its almost philological coverage and depth. What makes it unique is that it is conducted within an intellectual framework that is solidly “marxist” (with a small m, as Crowley now spells it), though not entirely immune to other strains of Theory (with a capital T). Crowley's marxism falls within that British tradition whose last great exponent was the Cambridge critic Raymond Williams – who has also inspired much of Crowley's method and style, and from those work the main title is taken (“Language in history: That full field,” Williams 1983:189).