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

A respected social critic offers an insightful and amusing exploration of the slow death of manners and the steady triumph of boorishness in America, showing how the decline of manners has a long and socially significant history. 25,000 first printing.

Mark Caldwell is a literary critic and the author of an acclaimed socio-medical history of tuberculosis in America, The Last Crusade. He teaches at Fordham University and lives in Manhattan and New York's Hudson Valley.