on minding your manners

 John F. Kasson takes on civility in everyday urban life.

The often uncivil comments on social media, news and other websites make many wonder, "When did people become so rude?" Gunther Barth tells us it is actually the other way around, particularly in an emerging urban America. For him, nineteenth century city-dwellers in the United States underwent a "civilizing process." 

No surprises here. The opening decades of the nineteenth century found many people encountering others whose personalities, politics and culture were quite different from their own. And in this space, as Barth says, a particular culture emerged. It did as much when a motley crew found new ways of coping with with one another.

Next week, we take up the issue of civility in urban America via a select reading from John F. Kasson's Rudeness & Civility: Manners in Nineteenth Century Urban America. It's a perfect bridge to the following week's Barth reading. For sure, two weeks hence we will discover the ways Barth allows us to see how people learned restraint (often while still fighting) in baseball parks. At the time, spectator sports became a critical part of an urbanizing and industrializing America. Perhaps all of these ideas will crystallize when the students and I visit Rickwood Field in Birmingham and learn more about the history of baseball in America with Dr. Richard Megraw from UA's Department of American Studies. 

As a prelude to that trip - and Alabama playing Florida next Saturday (As a University of Miami grad and Miami-native, I'm especially looking forward to this game!) - we'll also pay some measure of attention to civility and sports.  That discussion requires a closer look at commoners and aristocrats in and outside the urban space.  From cockfighting, billiards and horse-racing to rowing and the beginnings of football in the land that will become these United States, we'll have much to think about. 

When do Americans begin to collectively learn the merits of self-discipline and emotional control and why is this still a work in progress here and elsewhere? How do capitalism, gender and class figure in, according to Kasson? How do we widen our scope of inquiry to include other differences like race, ethnicity and region?