In any society, a foreigner learning the language must also learn what passes for good manners. The same is true for the historian trying to understand the social rules of a period and why these change. This book explores the nature and development of early modern conceptions of good manners, and examines some of the particular forms of everyday behaviour which these conceptions implied. `Courtesy' and `Civility' were among the values central to Tudor and Stuart assumptions and fears about the social and political order.

Powder Puff Principles is about remembering the grace and good manners our mothers and grandmothers displayed in their dress, behavior, and the image they projected, while preparing ourselves to do the same for our children. Powder Puff Principles is about being polished and prepared, and adhering to morals and integrity. These principles allow us to embrace our own strengths and femininity while empowering us to do anything we put our minds to.

Take a swig of the Wild, Wild West with 60 historically inspired cattle kingdom cocktails.

Based on trail life after the Civil War, the cow towns at the time, and on the drinks enjoyed there, Cowboy Cocktails gives you a true taste of the cowboy lifestyle. With charming sidebars throughout, learn some surprising history about cowboys and their experiences in the Wild West like:

• Free Lunch – During the cowboy era, American saloons offered “free lunch,” or small bites served gratis alongside drink orders. A typical free lunch included smoked oysters, crackers with Limburger cheese, rye bread, and sardines. If you want to recreate a free lunch and make it a feast, add salted peanuts, sauerkraut, cold cuts, pretzels, and dill pickles. Crafty saloon owners knew that such salty offerings not only kept customers around longer but kept them thirsty for more.
• Chili Powder – German immigrant William Gebhardt first pulverized dried chile peppers by using a meat grinder in the 1890s. The powder was popularized along the Wells Fargo stagecoach line in Texas and became a boon to home cooks and chuck wagon chefs alike. The powder also helped popularize chili as a recognizable dish across the US.

• Dead Man’s Hand – bourbon whiskey, agave nectar, spicy bitters, Peychaud’s bitters; fun fact: named for the cards Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was shot, now called the “dead man’s hand” (two black aces and two black eights)
• Watermelon Ranch Water – blanco tequila, lime juice, fresh watermelon juice, Topo Chico (or club soda); fun fact: “ranch water” is the name for the combination of tequila, lime juice, and sparkling water
• Madame Mustache – mezcal, agave nectar, Angostura bitters, beer; fun fact: named for Eleanor Dumont, who operated a series of gambling dens across the western frontier (and, yes, also had a mustache)
• I’m Your Huckleberry – bourbon whiskey, huckleberry syrup, lemon juice, Angostura bitters; fun fact: named for a real quote said by Doc Holliday, but made famous by Val Kilmer’s delivery of the line in the 1993 movie Tombstone
• Tombstone Tonsil Painter – rye whiskey, Tawny Port, Benedictine, Angostura bitters; fun fact: “tonsil paint,” or “tonsil varnish,” was a cowboy nickname for whiskey

Cook, host and eat like a private chef with Meredith Hayden of Wishbone Kitchen.

With more than 100 recipes ranging from 20-minute meals to showstopping centrepieces, Meredith Hayden makes food that is both unfussy and elegant.

Inspired by Meredith’s experience as a private chef in NYC and the Hamptons and for fans of Dinner with Friends on YouTube, The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook will help you to rediscover the joy in cooking and find any excuse to celebrate with friends and family.

A popular genre from colonial times to 1900, the conduct book provides the youthful reader with authoritative guidance about right moral, religious, and gender role behavior. With the aim of teaching the young what they need to know--and believe--about society's expectations for the ideal young man and woman, the genre codified true American manhood and womanhood. Until now, conduct books have been mixed in and cataloged with books on manners, etiquette, education, religion, or success. This guide provides an analytic and historical overview of the conduct book as a genre and its cultural work in America. With an annotated bibliography of over 500 books, it is the first work to provide scholars interested in studying the cultural stance, intent, and importance of conduct-of-life texts with easy access to conduct books. The book provides an extensive overview of the conduct book, with separate chapters on the development of conduct books for children, men, and women. The fully annotated bibliography, which lists the conduct books by their intended audience, includes 196 conduct books for children, 142 texts for young men, 188 titles for young women, and 57 texts for adults of either sex. In addition, the work includes a short selected bibliography of secondary sources and an index. This guide opens the genre for further study.

There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken.

When the world becomes overwhelming, Ella Risbridger focuses on the little things that bring her joy, like enjoying a glass of wine when cooking, FaceTiming with a friend whilst making bagels, and sharing recipes that are good for the soul. One night she found herself lying on her kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up - and it was the thought of a chicken, of roasting it, and of eating it, that got her to her feet and made her want to be alive.

Midnight Chicken is a cookbook. Or, at least, you'll flick through these pages and find recipes so inviting that you will head straight for the kitchen: roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon spaghetti, charred leek lasagne, squash skillet pie, spicy fish finger sandwiches and burnt-butter brownies. It's the kind of cooking you can do a little bit drunk, that is probably better if you've got a bottle of wine open and a hunk of bread to mop up the sauce. But if you settle down and read it with a cup of tea (or a glass of that wine), you'll also discover that it's an annotated list of things worth living for - a manifesto of moments worth living for. This is a cookbook to make you fall in love with the world again.

Featuring an entire chapter on storecupboard recipes.