Bowing to Necessities: A History of Manners in America, 1620-1860
by C. Dallett Hemphill
Category: History

How men and women interact, the respect young show old and old show young, and who doffs their hat to whom provides a telling window on American cultural history. Bowing to Necessities is the chronologically most wide-ranging study of its kind, covering the long period of 1620 to 1860. Working through two centuries of conduct literature, Professor Hemphill provides a wonderful retelling of American history to the Civil War, illuminating crucial connections between evolving class, gender, and age relations along the way.