This is a remarkable book, for two principal reasons: first, its unique approach to its subject, treating language as a living entity; second, its singular method of analysis, in which Alatorre reconciles the diachronic and the synchronic, the historical and the periodic. That makes this book not only a precious linguistic handbook on the evolution of the Spanish language and a cultural chronicle of Hispanic civilization, and what is more, an exemplary dissertation on the relation between the collective mind and the material development of Spain. While authoritative histories of the Spanish language exist, no other makes of its stylistic dimension an epistemological tool. In this extraordinary work, Alatorre’s choice of style and rhetorical instruments become essential elements of the approach we need to take toward this history. It is notable in this regard that Roberto Perezdiaz has found a way to replicate the close-to-colloquial tone of the original text in his translation, thus bringing the English reader the full import of an exceptional book.