This title was first published in 2001: Although 17th- and 18th-century English language theorists claimed to be correcting errors in grammar and preserving the language from corruption, this new study demonstrates how grammar served as an important cultural battlefield where social issues were contested. Author Linda C. Mitchell situates early modern linguistic discussions, long thought to be of little interest, in their larger cultural and social setting to show the startling degree to which grammar affected, and was affected by, such factors as class and gender.

Linda Mitchell

Introduction; 1: Vernacular Claims Victory; 2: "Reformation of Schooles": Hartlib, Comenius, Milton; 3: The Battle: Good Grammar or Good Writing; 4: Repairing Babel: Battles in Universal Language and Universal Grammar; 5: Regulating Social Position