As a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania
in the 1970s, I took what everyone called the “Grandfathers”
course, which provided an overview of the field through
the work of individual scholars (Dell Hymes was the professor).
It had a more proper title we all ignored, probably “History
of linguistics.” Now, The early days of sociolinguistics
provides an updated and more complete version of that course,
except that it emphasizes sociolinguistics rather than
all of linguistics; it presents substantial information
about the development of the field, as seen through the
eyes of one scholar after another. As we enter the new millennium,
the discussion appropriately now includes “grandmothers”
as well as “grandfathers.” This has the flavor
of salvage linguistics: get the elders to report what they
know before they die (or forget), in order to preserve
the details for future generations. This goal is perhaps
most obviously visible in the selection by Charles Ferguson.
It is not a piece he actually contributed; rather, it is
constructed from interviews conducted by his friends, colleagues,
and students during his recuperation from a series of severe
strokes (77). Given the centrality of Ferguson in the history
of sociolinguistics – he is “identified by
a majority of the contributors as the principal architect
for the field” (321) – his inability to write
his own summary of events justifies the remainder of the
individual histories.