These first two deserve special mention:
History of English Webpage by Elly Van Gelderen. Professor Van Gelderen created it, and keeps it updated, as a supplement to her textbook -- the one that we are using.
Drout, Michael. A History of the English Language. Course Guide. Modern Scholar - Recorded Books, 2006.
(Excellent short guide whcih is also the text for Professor Drout's Recorded Books course. A really excellent resource - fun to listen to, but the Course Guide has exactly the same text.)
The
Cambridge History of the English Language
Baugh, Albert Croll, and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. Five editions, the 6th edition due out in 2012.
One of the standard textbooks, written to be accessible for English majors and other non-Linguistics students.
Bragg, Melvyn. The adventure of English : the biography of a language. (2004) Sprague: PE1075 .B66 2004
A British-oriented, very readable narrative history.
It is also available as a Recorded Book. Excellent -- if you can find it, listen to it!
Film online, free! All 8 parts. Not the whole book, but a good film nonetheless.
Film online at Youtube - but only the first six parts.
Crystal, David. The
Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language .(2003). Sprague: PE1072 .C68 2003
Often assigned as a text for HEL courses. Crystal is one of the top authors in this field. Any of his books will be worth reading.
Mugglestone, Lynda. The Oxford History of English.
Mugglestone is one of the greatest experts in the field of HEL.