Ostler Nicholas. Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin

Walker & Company. 2007. 400 pages. ISBN: 0802716792/080271515X.
The Latin language has been the one constant in the cultural history of the West for more than two millennia. It has defined the way in which we express our thoughts, our faith, and our knowledge of how the world functions, its use echoing on in the law codes of half the world, in the terminologies of modern science, and, until forty years ago, in the liturgy of the Catholic Church.A Latin World.
Ad infinitum—An Empire Lived in Latin.
Fons et origo—Latin's Kin.
Sub rosa—Latins Etruscan Stepmother.
Cut bono?—Rome's Winning Ways.
Excelsior—Looking Up to Greek.
Felix coniunctio—A Partnership of Paragons.
Latin Recruits.
Urbi et orbi—Taking Over the Church.
Voxpopuli vox dei—Latin as the Bond of Unity.
Dies irae—Staying On.
Ultra vires—Beyond the Limits of Empire.
Worlds Built on Latin.
Lapsus linguae—Incurable Romantics: Fractured Latin.
Amor vincit omnia—Latin Lovers.
Litterae humaniores—The Fruits of a Latin Education.
Ex oriente lux—Sources of Higher Learning.
Latin in a Vernacular World.
Alter ego—Humanism and the Return of the Classics.
Deus ex machina—Printing and the Profusion of Grammars.
Novus orbis—Latin America.
Decus et tutamen—Last Redoubts.
Eheufugaces—Latins Decline.
Sub specie aeternitatis—Latin Today.
Notes on the Latin Tags in Chapter Headings.
Etruscan Borrowings in Latin.
Effects of Sound Changes on Latin Nouns and Verbs.