Book: Alternative Histories of the English Language

        So I was in the bookstore last night when I happened to stumble across a
promising title in the Linguistics section: "Alternative Histories of the
English Language." Upon skimming through the book, I realized that the title
should have been, "Histories of Alternative Englishes" or something like
that. It does not venture into speculation about different paths English
*could* have taken, but rather studies English dialects and registers. From a
conlanging perspective, it offers some very good description of the different
varieties of English and their history.
        Here's the table of contents, if anyone is interested:
Introduction: In the Year 2525, PETER TRUDGILL AND RICHARD
WATTS PROLOGUE
1. The Legitimate Language: Giving a History to English,
Jim Milroy
PART I
Introduction to Part I
2. The History of the Lesser-known Varieties of English, PETER
TRUDGILL
3. 'North of Watford Gap': A Cultural History of Northern
English (from 1700), KATIE WALES
4. The History of Southern Hemisphere Englishes, ELIZABETH
GORDON AND ANDREA SUDBURY
5. 'Deformed in the Dialects': An Alternative History of
Non-standard English, SHANA POPLACK, GERARD VAN HERK AND
DAWN HARVIE
6. Building a New English Dialect: South African Indian
English and the History of Englishes, RAJEND MESTHRIE
7. The Story of Good and Bad English in the United States,
DENNIS PRESTON
Part II
Introduction to Part II
8. From Polite Language to Educated Language: The
Reemergence of an Ideology, RICHARD J. WATTS
9. Eloquence and Elegance: Ideals of Communicative Competence
in Spoken English, SHARON MILLAR
10. Women's Writings as Evidence for Linguistic Continuity
and Change in Early Modern English, TERTTU NEVALAINEN
11. Discourse Markers in Early Modern English, ANDREAS H.
JUCKER
12. Epilogue: Broadcasting the Nonstandard Message, DAVID
CRYSTAL
        :Peter