Peter Burke is a Reader in Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Roy Porter is a Professor of the History of Medicine at The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.

'The broad concentration upon a generally-neglected period of language history (the 17th and 18th centuries) is wholly welcome... Nigel Smith is fascinating on 'The Uses of Hebrew in the English Revolution' and Peter Burke's little sketch of post-Medieval uses of Latin is wide ranging and excellent.' The London Review of Books

• Introduction. 1. Heu domine, adsunt Turcae: A Sketch for a Social History of Post-medieval Latin: Peter Burke.2. The Uses of Hebrew in the English Revolution: Nigel Smith.3. From Shibboleth to Apocalypse: Quaker Speechways during the Puritan Revolution: Hugh Ormsby-Lennon.4. 'New World of English Words': John Ray, FRS, the Dialect Protagonist, in the Context of his Times (1658 - 1691): Jo Gladstone.5. The People's English: Language and Class in England c.1840 - 1920: Patrick Joyce.6. Languages and Conquerors: Victor Kiernan.7. Towards a Semiotics of the Nerve: The Social History of Language in a New Key: G. S. Rousseau.8. Expressing Yourself Ill: The Language of Sickness in Georgian England: Roy Porter.9. 'A New Sort of Logick and Critick': Etymological Interpretation in Horne Tooke's The Diversions of Purley: Daniel Rosenberg.Afterword: Dell Hymes.Index.