Respectability as Moral Map and Public Discourse in the Nineteenth Century

Despite the fact that respectability is universally recognized as a feature of nineteenth-century society, it has seldom been studied as a subject in itself. This book is a path-breaking interpretation of respectability as a cultural phenomenon in its own right, constructed in the public spheres of Europe and the Americas in response to undesirable aspects of modernity, and eventually becoming an aspect of social life throughout the world.