Perceptions of Discourse: The Revolution in Assumptions

This book was ready to go (except for the final editing) nearly 14 years ago, when suddenly other events entered my life that took all my energy and time.

Apparently no one else in the interim has touched on the subject. Because I was loathe to let 15 or so years of research go to waste, and because I think that the history might be interesting and perhaps also useful to others, and also because I suddenly realized that I am now in my 80s and would not be around forever, I have finally taken time off to publish.

As for my sources, which extend from about the 16th century till the late 1980s, I have decided against updating them. Those included in these pages serve the purpose of this study, which is about a revolution in assumptions about discourse that began in the USA in the 1920s and became the institution in the 1980s in schools, universities, and in our perceptions of discourse in general. The tale in these pages also covers the more important consequences of the revolution.