The renowned historian Keith Thomas has written a peerless study of the place of civility in the shaping of English society between the early 16th and the late 18th centuries. Dramatic changes in court fashion and manners took place, but equally important was the emergence of an urban trading and manufacturing class with new values and standards of behaviour. Traditional notions of class, gender, social custom and 'Englishness' would all be affected by the upheavals of the period.