Rudeness and Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America

By John F. Kasson

Book Overview

With keen insight and subtle humor, John F. Kasson explores the history and politics of etiquette from America's colonial times through the nineteenth century. He describes the transformation of our notion of "gentility," once considered a birthright to some, and the development of etiquette as a middle-class response to the new urban and industrial economy and to the excesses of democratic society.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809034700
• ISBN13: 9780809034703
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Hill & Wang
• Length: 305 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Rudness and Civility

This book arrived VERY quickly and in excellent condition!!! Highly recommend seller and I wuld purchase from again!!!

Disagreement with the 3-star reader (I liked it)

John F. Kasson is not about how idosyncratic Victorian Americans were but about us in the contemporary world. It all depends on what you are looking for of course, but I found this book accessible, informative, and well written. It is a great introductory book for those who have never thought about these things, which is , in my view, the case for most of us.