An introduction to Early Modern English, this book helps students of English and linguistics to place the language of the period 1500-1700 in its historical context as a language with a common core but also as one which varies across time, regionally and socially, and according to register. The volume focuses on the structure of what contemporaries called the General Dialect - its spelling, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation - and on its dialectal origins. The book also discusses the langu...

Collects and introduces some of the most important and insightful essays written in the past century by philosophers, political theorists and other thinkers who have reflected on the nature of liberty.