Image: The Emancipation Approximation (Scene #18), Kara Walker
Southern women have the best manners and Southern men are all gentlemen, right? Humor books in the popular press riff on this topic, like Maryln Schwartz's book A Southern Belle Primer, or, Why Princess Margaret will Never be a Kappa Kappa Gamma and Metcalfe & Hays' Being Dead is no Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral.
In Myth, Manners, and Memory Charles Reagan Wilson writes, “in the South, moral codes, laws, and manners have been intertwined, with the aim of curbing individual aggressiveness and maintaining social order through a combination of external community pressures and internalized individual motivation," from "Manners" vol. 4 The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
This guide links to selected articles and books related to the peculiar institution of manners.