A Millennium of Manners

Modern voices are often raised in protest at what is perceived to be a rising tide of incivility. Loud conversations in restaurants, no one offering to give up a seat on the bus to someone old or pregnant, litter in the streets, queuing rules broken—rivers of discontent about infractions of manners such as these flood the internet and the media. Benet Davetian, noting the popularity of this subject, has decided to reverse the idea of rudeness, and look instead atits opposite. Calling his book Civility: A Cultural History, he sets out to recount the histories of this concept in no less than three different cultures: those of France, England and the United States. It is a brave undertaking.

The reader, however, soon discovers that this is far from all that Davetian intends. The word “civility” is normally defined in English as “conventional politeness and courtesy in behaviour or speech.” But Davetian, “for the purposes of this book,” has decided to broaden...