Esperanto and its rivals: the struggle for an international language

The problems of international communication and linguistic rights are recurring debates in the present-day age of globalization. 'Esperanto and its rivals sheds light on the factors that led almost all artificial languages to fail and helped English to prevail as the global tongue of the twenty-first century.

Exploring the social and political contexts of the three post prominent artificial languages - Volapük, Esperanto and Ido - Roberto Garvía examines the roles played by social movement leaders and inventors, the strategies different organizations used to lobby for each language, and other early decisions that shaped how they spread and evolved.