A Short History of Rudeness: Manners Morals and Misbehavior in Modern America

The perceived breakdown of civility has in recent years become a national obsession and our modern climate of boorishness has cultivated a host of etiquette watchdogs like Miss Manners and Martha Stewart who defend us against an onslaught of nastiness. Touching on aspects of both our public and private lives including work family and sex literary and social critic Mark Caldwell examines how the rules of behavior inevitably change and explains why no matter how hard we try we can never return to a golden era of civilized manners and mores.