To the Manner Born: A Most Proper Guide to Modern Civility

by Thomas Blaikie

Your friends neglect to RSVP to your party invitation . . . co-workers munch their pungent meals near your office . . . pedestrians shout into their cell phones and practically knock you to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812976592
• ISBN13: 9780812976595
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Villard Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Maybe a little dangerous, but good too!

First, let me state that I don't actually have a life-threatening food allergy. Still, I imagine that if I did, an etiquette book advising me to "eat everything" would not actually be sufficient pressure to induce some sort of gastronomic suicide. If you know peanuts will kill you, don't eat them, even at the risk of offending a host. Presumably, they would be more upset by your spontaneous demise at the table anyway. That's just common sense. There are also, for example, no instructions anywhere in this book saying "This End Up," or "Do Not Eat." These are things both the author and publisher (rightly, I hope) presume we are already aware of. So, not being part of whatever strange, food-allergy-sufferer activist group that several of my fellow reviewers are evidently a part of, I found this book pretty good despite these omissions. Still, I do think it's a little dangerous, albeit for a completely different reason. You see, while there is a great deal of good information here, many of the tactics advocated are a little... well, aggressive. Telling a parent to keep their child quiet in a public place, or handing a litterbug back their trash (excepting for a moment how hygienically-unsound this is likely to be), or pursuing someone you've just held the door for to insist on a "thank you," are all really good ways, at least here in the U.S., of getting buried in profanity or winding up with a fight on your hands. I guess things are different in the U.K. In fact, I find it ironic that a few of these "manners," if pursued unswervingly, will venture into rudeness. Even so, overall, I enjoyed it. There's a lot of good advice here, and even if read simply as an academic manifesto/rant on the value of politeness, it's still worth the ride. But if you intend to actually follow ALL of these suggestions, might I respectfully suggest that you supplement with a more... PHYSICAL curriculum as well. :)