CHOICE Recommended:

"Aimed at investigating how language data can solve real-life problems, applied linguistics brings together such otherwise separate realms as second-language acquisition, anthropology, and computer science. Its sheer breadth of application offers significant challenges to writing a cogent history of the discipline- even a brief account covering only the past 35 years. In A History of Applied Linguistics, De Bot (Univ. of Groningen, the Netherlands) succeeds in doing just that. Basing his discussion on direct feedback solicited from nearly a hundred scholars in the field, the author touches on all major aspects of the development of applied linguistics, including its milestones, competing theories, evolving trends, and hitherto unresolved problems". -- E. J. Vajda, Western Washington University, CHOICE Vol. 53 No. 3