In this episode, the Pugsters look at the idea of courtesy and manners through the lens of medieval courtesy books. These were instructions to children on how to behave derived from chivalry and from instructions to novices in monasteries. Their goal was to inculcate virtue in children before they had a chance to develop vices. The guys discuss how manners reflect how we think about other people and note that William Wilberforce’s decades-long campaign to abolish the slave trade in England was accompanied by a “reformation of manners” to change how people thought about each other as a necessary preliminary to abolition. The need to recover courtesy in our day is obvious, especially given online interactions.

Article Referenced:

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/08/time-return-medieval-courtesy-books-john-horvat.html?fbclid=IwAR0WKjJ3ZOFdDTYoSOuwnNuEF4RIAZRUfAGga4hq9z3OQzlfvCJCnGro710