Rudeness & Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America | National Humanities Center

Work of the Fellows: Monographs

Rudeness & Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America

By John F. Kasson (NHC Fellow, 1980–81; 2009–10)

Etiquette; Cities; Urbanization; American History; Urban History; Nineteenth-Century

New York: Hill and Wang, 1990

From the publisher’s description:

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.

Subjects
History / Sociology / Etiquette / Cities / Urbanization / American History / Urban History / Nineteenth-Century /

Kasson, John F. (NHC Fellow, 1980–81; 2009–10). Rudeness & Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1990.