The history of language policy in the United States is explored, focusing on the rights of language minorities. The first chapter presents constitutional and ethnolinguistic background information and gives an overview of the main categories of language rights. Chapter two describes the extent to which the federal government has or has not made use of and promoted languages other than English. The third chapter outlines American achievements in toleration-oriented minority rights, and the fourth examines minority rights extended to promote language use among post-independence immigrant groups. Chapters five through eight describe the promotive language rights granted in various geographic areas, including mainland United States (large old- settler groups and smaller groups of original settlers), outlying areas that became states, and overseas possessions that did not attain statehood. Contents are indexed. (Contains 694 references.) (MSE)