A fantastic exploration of the history of theories of how language affects our impressions of the world (and vice versa). I was particularly struck by the evolution of Gladstone’s theory about the colors that the ancients saw, and it is overwhelming to consider how much we have learned since then and, especially, how much we still don’t know. It was definitely a bonus that I speak Deutscher’s mother tongue and was able to appreciate the references he made to Hebrew throughout the book. 

I look forward to picking up John McWhorter’s The Language Hoax, which apparently presents a counter argument to the entire book, which seems especially fun because I had McWhorter as a professor of linguistics!