Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Rise And Fall Of Civility In America: The Genteel Republic, Richard Bushman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Ours is not the first age to feel pangs of anxiety about the decline of civility, refinement, and manners. Two centuries ago, the currents of revolution stirred similar fears among many of America's Founding Fathers. To these creatures of the Enlightenment, living in their Virgina plantation houses and Philadelphia mansions, manners and refinement ranked with the rule of law, the development of science, and the practice of the arts as the greatest of civilization's achievements.