Through his analysis of selected major developments in the history of English, Jeremy Smith argues that the history of the language can only be understood from a dynamic perspective. He proposes that internal linguistic mechanisms for language change cannot be meaningfully explained in isolation or without reference to external linguistic factors. The reader is provided with a synthesis of recent developments in English historical linguistics. Other features of the text include: a look at the theory and methodology of linguistic historiography; a consideration of the major changes in writing...

This book surveys the experiences of non-Russian USSR citizens both during and following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Jeremy Smith explores relations between Britain and Ireland during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with a story that still raises deep passions and bitter disagreements both among historians and within wider public opinion. This examination attempts to chart a more dispassionate course between the various contending positions and has enormous relevance to the unfolding events in both Northern Ireland and Britain as the united Kingdom moves towards a federal constitutional structure. Books in this Seminar Studies in History series bridge the gap between textbook and specialist...

In 1991, Communist rule in the Soviet Union came to an end after 84 years, and the world's largest state, one of the two global superpowers, broke up into fifteen independent countries. Few had predicted such an outcome when Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union six years before. Jeremy Smith discusses the long-term and short-term factors behind this extraordinary collapse, assessing the impact of economic crisis, nationalism, personalities and democratization in the process.

This text is designed to provide undergraduate students of English historical linguistics with a concise description of the language during the period 1100-1500. Middle English, the language of Chaucer, is discussed in relation to both earlier and later stages in the history of English, and in relation to other languages with which it came into contact.

Studies of the Caucasus in the West have been dominated by issues of security and ethnic conflict based on Eurocentric theoretical paradigms. By contrast, this volume offers contributions from researchers working within a range of disciplines, including history, social anthropology, sociology and cultural studies as well as international relations and security studies. Some of the contributions demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the region from `inside', while others explore the issues within a wider Eurasian and global perspective. The volume examines the politically-defined division of the...