Try

Language in the USA, Edward Finegan and John R. Rickford,  ISBN 0 521 
7747 X  2004 Cambrdige U Press. It has extensive work on other aspects 
of contemporary English, so maybe you could use just the first part in 
a reading packet. It's 92 pages, and if you can get copyright 
permission, it looks like the ideal supplement to a general text that 
covers the usual stuff -- Britain, etc.

I also use a book by Dick Leith called "A Social History of English". 
Its content is excellent, and it has chapters on the various 
"diasporas", from Celtic peoples to Singapore, etc. Unfortunately, it's 
very drily written.

I just went to look for another book I have on the history of English, 
but I found a plethora of interesting titles by using the author names 
Dick Leith and Joan Swann. to search in "books". You might want to shop 
those.

English in Its Social Contexts: Essays in Historical Sociolinguistics 
(Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics) (Paperback)
by Tim William Machan (Editor), Charles T. Scott (Editor)

(The essays in this one are uneven in level. Some are very academic, 
with jargon, and some are more accessible.)

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 30, 1992)
Language: English
ISBN: 019506500X

If you go to Amazon.com, you can look inside the books; if you can't, 
you can often do so at the publisher's site.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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