On the Process of Civilisation

Introduction

Norbert Elias wrote the two volumes in exile in England and published them in 1939 with a small press in Basel. The first volume uses books of manners from the Middle Ages to the 18th century to trace changes in behaviour at table, in nose-blowing and spitting, in bodily functions and sexuality: the thresholds of shame and embarrassment rise. The second volume links this to the formation of states: as monopolies of force and taxation emerge and chains of interdependence lengthen, people must control their impulses more evenly and constantly. Reissued in 1969 and as a paperback in 1976, the work made Elias famous late in life; the ethnologist Hans Peter Duerr, among others, challenged its picture of the Middle Ages.

Connections

Builds on

• Civilization and Its Discontents1930 · Sigmund Freud