Rudeness and Civility Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America [Paperback]

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.

John F. Kasson, who teaches history and American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author ofHoudini, Tarzan and the Perfect Man; Amusing the Million; Rudeness and Civility;andCivilizing the Machine.