In his new book, In Pursuit of Civility, Oxford historian Keith Thomas traces how the idea of conduct befitting a civilized people developed, especially in Stuart and Georgian England.
During the Middle Ages, Europeans of every social class were more prone to unrestrained impulses. It was not uncommon to eat with one's hands, belch at the dinner table, or relieve oneself in public. Renewed interest in ancient Greece and Rome during the Renaissance led to a new concern for how “civilized” people ought to act, according to Thomas. The use of the fork, which became common among the Italian upper classes in the 14th century and eventually reached England by the 18th, exemplifies this transition. The simple utensil demonstrated a heightened concern for how one's actions affected others, allowing one to eat without making a mess or nauseating others.
As new ideals of self-restraint were adopted by society's upper echelons, England's elites believed they had cast off “barbarism,” embraced “civility,” and achieved the most sophisticated of human societies. They could now lord it over their vulgar social inferiors—including the Scots, the Welsh, and especially the Irish—as well as foreigners across the Channel.
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