The present book, intended primarily for college students, aims to present
the historical development of English in such a way as to preserve a
proper balance between what may be called internal history—sounds and
inflections—and external history—the political, social, and intellectual
forces that have determined the course of that development at different
periods. The writer is convinced that the soundest basis for an
undersanding of present-day English and for an enlightened attitude
towards questions affecting the language today is a knowledge of the path
which it has pursued in becoming what it is. For this reason equal
attention has been paid to its earlier and its later stages.