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 2012-12-01 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.