In Pursuit of Civility: Manners and Civilization in Early Modern England

A SUNDAY TIMES, EVENING STANDARD, SPECTATOR AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR“In this gloriously rich book, Keith Thomas, one of our greatest living historians, explores how the idea of civility, from lavatory habits to table manners, evolved in early modern England.”-Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times “One of the most entertaining books imaginable.”-Philip Hensher, Spectator "Our finest living historian gives a dismayingly entertaining survey of what was held to be civilised behaviour and what barbarous in England between 1500 and 1800.”-Claire Tomalin, New Statesman Keith Thomas's seminal studies Religion and the Decline of Magic, Man and the Natural World, and The Ends of Life, explored the beliefs, values and social practices of the years between 1500 and 1800.In Pursuit of Civility continues this quest by examining what the English people thought it meant to be `civilized' and how that condition differed from being `barbarous' or `savage' . Thomas shows how the upper ranks of societ