20 Years Ago in Time: Manners
As Thanksgiving approaches, many parents rush to give their children a crash course in MANNERS. Two decades ago, in a cover story on the return of etiquette, TIME looked at America's often rocky relationship with the subject.
Despite the evidence of a revived interest in manners, a number of people
would argue the exact opposite, that manners continue to get worse. "Manners
have taken a beating these last 25 years," says Eppie Lederer, a.k.a. Ann
Landers, the advice columnist. "It isn't just that men aren't opening car
doors for women or offering them seats on subways or buses. It goes deeper
than that. The high crime rate is one thing that discourages openness and
courtesy to strangers" ... Fran Lebowitz, who made her mark as a caustic
social critic with Metropolitan Life (1978), also feels that things are
getting worse rather than better. "I don't think people have manners,"
she says. "I don't think people teach their children manners. I think boorishness
is the order of the day. There has been a return to convention, but that's
all nostalgia." --TIME, Nov. 5, 1984
From the Nov. 22, 2004 issue of TIME magazine
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