Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages

A New York Times Editor's Choice
An Economist Best Book of 2010
A Financial Times Best Book of 2010
A Library Journal Best Book of 2010

"An informative, pleasurable read... A gifted writer, Deutscher picks his way nimbly past overblown arguments to a sensible compromise."--The Boston Globe

From Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, and through a strange and dazzling history of the color blue, the leading linguist argues that our mother tongues do indeed shape our experiences of the world.

The debate is ages old: Where does language come from? Is it an artifact of our culture or written in our very DNA? In recent years, the leading linguists have seemingly settled the issue: all languages are fundamentally the same and the particular language we speak does not shape our thinking in any significant way. Guy Deutscher says they're wrong. Audacious, delightful, and provocative, Through the Language Glass is destined to become a classic of intellectual discovery.