Amerca's Favorite Dictionary Began As A Nationalist Project

"Merriam-Webster's ... original goal [was] to create and preserve a monolithic American culture. Noah Webster Jr., the dictionary's founding author, was one of the first American nationalists, and he wrote his reference books with the express purpose of creating a single definition of American English - one that often existed at the expense of regional and cultural variation of any kind."

Article source here:Arts Journal