The Rise of English

A sweeping account of the global rise of English and the high-stakes politics of languageSpoken by a quarter of the world's population, English is today's lingua franca--its common tongue.The language of business, popular media, and international politics, English has become commodified for its economic value and increasingly detached from any particular nation.This meteoric "rise of English" has many obvious benefits to communication.Tourists can travel abroad with greater ease. Political leaders can directly engage their counterparts.Researchers can collaborate with foreign colleagues.Business interests can flourish in the global economy. But the rise of English has very real downsides at times generating intense legal conflicts.In Europe, imperatives of political integration, job mobility, and university rankings compete with pride in national language and heritage as countries like France attempt to curb its spread.In countries like India, South Africa, Morocco, and Rwanda, it has