The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language

Reading Journey

Started: 2025-04-23T14:31:50Z
Ended: 2025-04-25T22:24:36Z
Total Time Read: 3hrs 4mins 51secs

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);

/Users/victor/Developer/Workspace/victorsothervector/books/_help_reading.py:78: UserWarning: set_ticklabels() should only be used with a fixed number of ticks, i.e. after set_ticks() or using a FixedLocator. Otherwise, ticks may be mislabeled.
  ax.set_xticklabels(

Figure 1: Reading done for The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language

title: “The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language” book: title: “The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language” format: html: code-fold: true creator: “@victorgeislinger” —

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.

READING

READING

READING

Bluesky Comments