ABSTRACT
Like working out what was said in a long conversation, the story of the growth of English is complex. Its history means that English is a family of linked, evolving concepts that don't fit neatly together neatly at all. In the early nineteenth century, the closest thing to what we know as English, was the study of 'the classics', the ancient Greek and Roman plays, poems and historical and philosophical texts from which society drew a great deal of inspiration. Perhaps the most important figure for the 'new English' was the Cambridge literary critic F. R. Leavis. During and after the First World War, many thought that the study of literature would restore a sense of humanity to the world. In 1917, a group of Cambridge academics, changed their degree programme and set up the study of English literature in its own right. The Newbolt Report supported this 'new English' and encouraged its growth nationwide.
