This book is a groundbreaking study of etiquette in the nineteenth century when the success of etiquette books reached unprecedented heights in Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. It positions etiquette as a fully-fledged theoretical concept within the fields of politeness studies and historical pragmatics. After tracing the origin of etiquette back to Spanish court protocol, the analysis takes a novel approach to key aspects of etiquette: its highly coercive and intricate scripts; the liminal rituals of social gatekeeping; the fear for blunders; the obsession with precedence. Interrogating the complex relationship between historical etiquette and adjacent notions of politeness, conduct, morality, convention, and ritual, the study prompts questions on gender stereotyping and class privilege surrounding the present-day etiquette revival. Through adopting a unique comparative approach and a corpus-based methodology this study seeks to revitalise our understandings of etiquette. This book will be of interest to scholars of historical linguistics and pragmatics, as well as those in neighbouring fields such as literary criticism, gender studies and family life, domestic and urban spaces.

Pioneering African American journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) is widely remembered for her courageous antilynching crusade in the 1890s; the full range of her struggles against injustice is not as well known. With this book, Patricia Schechter r

The inimitable Francis Brennan shares his philosophy for life: spread a little sparkle dust and make the world a happier place Have you ever wondered which fork to use when dining out? Or how to make the perfect cup of tea? If you've ever wanted to learn the correct etiquette for weddings, funerals and christenings, this is the book for you! Covering everything from gracefully handling office politics to what gifts to bring to a dinner party, this book will advise you on everything you need to lead a well-groomed and well-mannered life. Francis Brennan, the hugely successful proprietor of the Park Hotel Kenmare and presenter of RTÉ's highly rated 'At Your Service' believes it's the little things in life that count the most. And by following his philosophy based on manners, etiquette and respect, he has built an extremely successful business and a very happy life. With his signature charm and wit, Francis shares with you his personal code for living – including the correct way to position a toilet roll, and the direction in which your pillowcase should face! Full of fun and personal memories, Francis will motivate you to pay attention to the small things that make a big difference. 'You get the feeling that if he ever called over to your house you'd have a totally delightful evening drinking tea with him, and although he might rearrange the cushions on your sofa and criticise your choice of hand soap, he'd do it so nicely you'd end up offering him all the fancy biscuits.' Beaut.ie 'Wouldn't it be a great if restaurateurs got hold of Francis' book and doled it out to, ahem, deserving parents?' Sinead Ryan, The Herald It's the Little Things: Table of Contents Preface - Manners Begin At Home - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? - The People Next Door - The Big Occasions: Births, Marriages and Deaths - Planes, Trains and Automobiles - The World of Work - The Ancient Art of Grooming: How to Look Your Best on Every Occasion - Eating Out - Social MediaEpilogue: It's the Little Things

The Nadir and the Zenith is a study of temperance and melodramatic excess in African American fiction before the Harlem Renaissance. Anna Pochmara combines formal analysis with attention to the historical context, which, in addition to postbellum race relations in the United States, includes white and black temperance movements and their discourses. Despite its proliferation and popularity at the time, African American fiction between Reconstruction and World War I has not attracted nearly as much scholarly attention as the Harlem Renaissance. Pochmara provocatively suggests that the historical moment when black people’s “status in American society” reached its lowest point— what historian Rayford Logan called the “Nadir”—coincides with the zenith of black novelistic productivity before World War II. Pochmara examines authors such as William Wells Brown, Charles W. Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, and Amelia E. Johnson. Together, these six writers published no fewer than seventeen novels in the years of the Nadir (1877–1901), surpassing the creativity of all New Negro prose writers and the number of novels they published during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.