Civility : a cultural history / Benet Davetian.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davetian, Benet, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Courtesy--Social aspects--History.

Courtesy.

Courtesy--United States--History.

Courtesy--England--History.

Courtesy--France--History.

Courtesy--Europe--History.

History.

Social aspects.

Europe.

France.

England.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 607 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, [2009]

Summary:

Cut off in traffic? Bumped without apology on the subway? Forced to listen to a profane conversation in a public space? In today's Western societies, many feel that there has been a noticeable and marked decrease in mutual consideration in both public and private settings. Are we less civil now than in the past? Civility is an engaging and masterful study that addresses this question from many points of view.

Contents:

1 Introduction 3

Part I The Genealogy of Western Courtesy and Civility

2 From Barbarism to Courtly Manners 23

3 Secular Civility in the Renaissance 51

4 Shifts in Identity and Awareness: Protestantism and the Enlightenment 84

5 French Court Society, the French Revolution, and the Paradoxes of French Civility 98

6 England and the Victorian Ethic 141

7 The American Experience: Democracy and Informal Civility 211

Part II The Rise of the Late-Modern American Self

8 Conformity, Opposition, and Identity 269

Part III The Multifaceted Anatomy of Civility

9 Towards a Cultural Sociology of Civility 343

Part IV Contemporary French, American, and English Civility and Interaction

10 A Comparative Field Study of France, American, and England 429

Part V Summing Up

11 Civilizing and Recivilizing Processes 497.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [531]-572) and index.

ISBN:

9780802093387

0802093388

9780802097224

0802097227

OCLC:

277067463