This scholarly & readable history of lexicography celebrates the dictionary maker who is the interpreter & arbiter of language itself. The story begins 4,500 years ago in Sumeria, where the first lexicon was created to render the codes of a vanquished nation accessible to its inferior conquerors. He traces the evolution of the practice to Greece, Rome, & Byzantium before arriving at English-lang. dict. & todays computerized compendiums. From clay tablets to CD-ROMs, from the philosophy of a pure lang. in Nazi Germany to the banning of the Amer. Heritage Dict. in Texas, Green explores the influence that language has had on culture & vice versa.