Norbert Elias (June 22, 1897 to August 1, 1990) was a Jewish German scholar who managed to get to England by 1935. He had studied with Karl Jaspers, but later switched from philosophy to sociology. In 1939 the work which later established his reputation, was published in German, (but not, apparently in English til 1969). This was The Civilizing Process , Vol.I. The History of Manners , (1969), and The Civilizing Process, Vol.II. State Formation and Civilization, (1982). Norbert was concerned to trace and understand the change in people between the medieval period, and current times. He seems to have understood it as a critical change in manners: that is, to use his examples, how men learned to use a handkerchief rather than their own sleeve to blow their nose, or, another example, which Elias may (I am not sure) have been the one to bring back to popular consciousness, the torture of cats and its falling out of fashion. This went from a popular pasti...
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