Download or read book Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America written by David S. Shields and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 1997 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In cities from Boston to Charleston, elite men and women of eighteenth-century British America came together in private venues to script a polite culture. By examining their various 'texts'?conversations, letters, newspapers, and privately circulated manuscripts?David Shields reconstructs the discourse of civility that flourished in and further shaped elite society in British America.