I almost bought this book, but after reading the review from FrKurt Messick, (a 5 start positive review of this book), I was intrigued to also order "The Mother Tongue" by the same author, for my wife (a spanish teacher). However, when I read the reviews of "The Mother Tongue", I found numerous linguists stating that the author had made numerous, inexcusable factual mistakes and he stated controversial concepts as facts. To me, an author who does this in one book, should not be trusted to tell us true, factual information on "The History of Nearly Everything" (a much more challenging book).