Author:
Thomas, Keith, 1933- author.
ImprintWaltham, Massachusetts : Brandeis University Press, [2018]
Descriptionxvi, 356 pages ; 24 cm
Note:1. CIVIL BEHAVIOR. The Chronology of Manners ; Manners and Gentility ; Refinement -- 2. MANNERS AND THE SOCIAL ORDER. The Social Hierarchy ; The Topography of Manners ; The Civility of the Middling Sort ; The Manners of the People ; Civilizing Agents ; Plebeian Civility -- 3. THE CIVILIZED CONDITION. Civil Society ; Civilized Warfare ; A Civilized Compassion ; Civilized Manners ; The Fruits of Civility -- 4. THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. The Ascent to Civility ; Barbarous Neighbours -- 5. EXPORTING CIVILITY. Confronting the Barbarians ;- Civilizing by Force ; Inventing Race ; Fighting and Enslaving -- 6. CIVILIZATION RECONSIDERED. Cultural Relativism ; Another Kind of Civility ; The Civilizing Mission Disputed ; The Defects of Civilization ; Civilization Rejected -- 7. CHANGING MODES OF CIVILITY. Xenophobic Masculinity ; Manners and Morality ; The Quaker Challenge ; Democratic Civility ; The Future of Manners.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:"Civility in a changing world - the renowned historian Keith Thomas has written a peerless study of the place of civility in the shaping of English society between the early sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries. Dramatic changes in court fashion and manners took place, but equally important was the emergence of an urban trading and manufacturing class with new values and standards of behavior. Traditional notions of class, gender, social custom, and Englishness would all be affected by the upheavals of the period. Civility emerged in contrast to barbarism, as England took its first steps towards global domination. Displaying a true master's grasp of the period, Thomas offers a compelling and wide-ranging analysis of the connections between changing notions of civility, the justification of colonial expansion, and the invention of race." --Publisher.
