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

A funny and provocative cultural history of class, manners, and the decline of civility

In his smart and thought provoking new book, literary/social critic Mark Caldwell gives us a history of the demise of manners and charts the progress of an epidemic of rudeness in America. The 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, with which we defend ...