Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley are pleased to announce the debut of our co-edited volume Manners and Mischief: Gender, Power, and Etiquette in Japan (UC Press, 2011). The book examines etiquette guides, advice literature, and other such instruction for behavior from the early modern period to the present day and discovers how manners do in fact make the nation. Eleven accessibly written essays consider a spectrum of cases, from the geisha party to gay bar cool, executive grooming, and good manners for subway travel. Together, they show that etiquette is much more than fussy rules for behavior. In fact the idiom of manners, packaged in conduct literature, reveals much about gender and class difference, notions of national identity, the dynamics of subversion and conformity, and more. This richly detailed work reveals how manners give meaning to everyday life and extraordinary occasions, and how they can illuminate larger social and cultural transformations.

For more about Manners& Mischief and order information, please visit the UC Press website: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520267848