Thanksgiving is an ideal time to read a book on civility—and not just because of the now all-too-familiar worries about political arguments derailing the holiday dinner. Rather, civility itself is fundamentally about gratitude—gratitude for one another and for the community that brings us together. That is a timely and timeless lesson of Alexandra Hudson’s delightful new book, The Soul of Civility.
“[T]here is a fundamental difference between civility and politeness,” she writes. Politeness is about outward conduct, “but civility is more.” It is the internal “motivation behind our conduct that sees other persons as our moral equals and worthy of basic respect . . . a disposition that recognizes and respects the common humanity, the fundamental personhood, and the inherent dignity of other human beings.”
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