This volume is a compendium of thirty-six articles by participants in the development of the field of sociolinguistics. Edited by Christina Bratt Paulston and G. Richard Tucker, themselves important contributors to the discipline, the volume provides an insider's perspective on the issues, both practical and theoretical, which motivated individuals and institutions to turn to a view of language as inextricably connected to society and culture.

This volume will be of interest not only to sociolinguists, but to sociologists, social psychologists, anthropological linguists, and others interested in applied linguistics. Moving a bit farther afield, it will also be of interest to historians of science for its breadth of coverage of the development of an increasingly important academic discipline and for the important data it provides regarding the academic research milieu, the zeitgeist, which spawned sociolinguistics as an area of inquiry.