The History of English provides a chronological analysis of the linguistic, social, and cultural development of the English language from before its establishment in Britain around the year 450 to the present. Each chapter represents a new stage in the evolution of the language.

Stephan Gramley is Studiendirektor associated with the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies at Bielefeld University, Germany, where he has worked in the area of language and cultural studies. He has published books on the English language: A Survey of Modern English with Kurt-Michael Pätzold (1st and 2nd editions) and Vivian Gramley (3rd edition); The Vocabulary of World English, and the Bielefeld Introduction to Applied Linguistics (with Vivian Gramley).

Vivian Gramley is a senior lecturer at Bielefeld University, Germany, teaching in applied linguistics, the linguistics of the language system, and language practice. She has published in the areas of clinical linguistics and Deaf education as well as edited the Bielefeld Introduction to Applied Linguistics (with Stephan Gramley), and published the 3rd edition of A Survey of Modern English (with Stephan Gramley and Kurt-Michael Pätzold) and Writing in English Studies (with Katharina Pietsch and Tyll Zybura).