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Voices In Time

1744 | New York

City Talk

Learning how to talk like a New Yorker.More

Voices In Time

1821 | Pisa

The Imperial Faculty

Percy Bysshe Shelley on language and the imagination.More

Voices In Time

c. 1965 | San Quentin, CA

No Sex in the Prison Library

Eldridge Cleaver fights for the right to read what he likes.More

Voices In Time

c. 1943 | Dublin

In Favor of the Antescript

Flann O’Brien takes on Ireland’s postscript mania.More

Voices In Time

1885 | Camden, NJ

Borrowing a Simile

Walt Whitman marvels at the ceaseless evolution of slang in America.More

Voices In Time

1826 | Philadelphia

Invention of Letters

Seeking the means of civilization.More

Voices In Time

1798 | Richmond

Dissenting Opinion

James Madison rails against the alien and sedition acts,More

Voices In Time

1985 | Paris

To Keep the Word Alive

Writing under totalitarianism.More

Voices In Time

1789 | Philadelphia

Proofreading

Benjamin Franklin promotes the proper usage of English.More

Voices In Time

1846 | Paris

New Media

A disorienting encounter with French technology.More

Voices In Time

c. 1694 | Versailles

Base Flattery

Sycophants and the Sun King.More

Voices In Time

1896 | Shanghai

In the Names of Progress

“Obtaining the shortcut of script is the fountainhead of self-strengthening.”More

Voices In Time

c. 2800 BC | Uruk

One World, One Language

The pursuit of a universal tongue.More

Voices In Time

1983 | New York City

On the Contrary

Gloria Steinem is fed up with conversational double standards.More

Voices In Time

1871 | Oxford

Close Reading

Through the looking-glass with Lewis Carroll.More

Voices In Time

1651 | London

Trains of Thought

Thomas Hobbes praises speech.More

Voices In Time

c. 365 BC | Athens

Tone of Voice

Demosthenes’ road to oratorical greatness.More

Voices In Time

1518 | Wittenberg

Going Viral

Martin Luther’s unwanted celebrity.More

Voices In Time

c. 350 | Syria

Falling Off the Donkey

An unconventional grammar lesson.More

Voices In Time

1915 | Congers, NY

Turn On, Tune In

The great and growing army of wireless boys.More

Voices In Time

c. 1955 | Baton Rouge

What White Folks Call Verbal Skills

H. Rap Brown’s street education.More

Voices In Time

c. 1860 | United States

Horsepower

The thrilling history of the Pony Express.More

Voices In Time

1922 | New York City

Seen But Not Heard

Walter Lippmann on what is lost in transmission.More

Voices In Time

1992 | Washington, DC

Media Saturation

The making of a pop culture president.More

Voices In Time

213 BC | Qin

Spring Cleaning

Ignorance is strength in the Qin dynasty.More

Voices In Time

1906 | Washington, DC

Redefined

Ambrose Bierce reinterprets the dictionary.More

Voices In Time

2011 | Cairo

To the Barricades

Tweeting a revolution.More

Voices In Time

1818 | Dresden

Music Is the Food of Soul

Arthur Schopenhauer searches for songs in the key of life.More

Voices In Time

1841 | Equatorial Guinea

Drum Circle

The talking drums of West Africa.More

Voices In Time

1855 | Portugal

Broken English

Hopelessly lost in translation with Pedro Carolino.More

Voices In Time

c. 1190 BC | Argos

Instant Messaging

Clytemnestra receives word from the gods.More

Voices In Time

c. 1887 | Tuscumbia, AL

What Is Love?

Helen Keller seeks understanding of the inexpressible.More

Voices In Time

c. 1969 | Vietnam

Telling a True War Story

Tim O’Brien searches for what is real in war.More

Voices In Time

1961 | Washington, DC

Breaking the Bad News

Television’s vast wasteland.More

Voices In Time

1820 | London

The High-Raised Literary Tone

William Hazlitt’s tribute to the conversation of authors.More

Voices In Time

2008 | New York City

Last Stand

Nicholson Baker tries to stop Wikipedia deletions.More

Voices In Time

1751 | Paris

Synesthesia

Denis Diderot on the senses, language, and aesthetics.More

Voices In Time

c. 1185 | Troyes

Dating Manual

Andreas the Chaplain lays out the rules of conversation.More

Voices In Time

1854 | Concord

Nothing to Say

Henry David Thoreau, techno-skeptic.More

Voices In Time

1312 | Vienne

Spreading the Word

Pope Clement V establishes language studies. More

Voices In Time

c. 1725 | Atlantic Ocean

Talking Book

An unquenchable thirst for knowledge.More

Voices In Time

1966 | Cambridge, MA

Talking Cure

When your computer is your shoulder to cry on.More

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