Empires of the Word

“[A] wide-ranging history of the world’s languages... [Ostler] brilliantly raises questions and supplies answers or theories.” — Washington Post
“Enlightening . . . Always challenging, always instructive--at times, even startling or revolutionary.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Delicious! Ostler’s book shows how certain lucky languages joined humankind in its spread across the world.” — John McWhorter
“What an extraordinary odyssey the author of this superb work embarked upon.” — Literary Review
“Covers more rambunctious territory than any other single volume I’m aware of...A wonderful ear for the project’s poetry.” — John Leonard, Harper's Magazine
“Revolutionary... Executed with a giddying depth of scholarship, yet the detail is never too thick to swamp the general reader.” — Boston magazine
“True scholarship. A marvelous book, learned and instructive.” — National Review
“[A] monumental new book... Ostler furnishes many fresh insights, useful historical anecdotes and charming linguistic oddities.” — Chicago Tribune
“A work of immense erudition.” — Christian Science Monitor
“A story of dramatic reversals and puzzling paradoxes. A rich... text with many piercing observations and startling comparisons.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review