The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language

Reading Journey

  • Started: 2025-04-23T14:31:50Z
  • Ended: 2025-04-23T16:04:44Z
  • Total Time Read: 1hrs 18mins 4secs
Code
%run _help_reading.py
import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_csv(
  'https://github.com/MrGeislinger/victorsothervector/raw/main/'
  'data/reading/all_reading-clean.csv'
)

book_name = """The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language"""
one_title = one_title_data(df, book_name)
one_title_summary = get_summary_by_day(one_title)
generate_plot(one_title_summary, book_name);
Figure 1: Reading done for The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language

Thoughts on The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language

Overview

Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language.

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