With the entire nation screaming for a return to civility, Miss Manners, the highest authority, takes matters into her own properly gloved hands and puts etiquette where it belongs - on the public agenda. Miss Manners Rescues Civilization is a wise, witty and startling examination of how the breakdown of etiquette is contributing to the disintegration of our society.

Even the government finds itself battered by our national epidemic of rudeness, yet the very politicians who cry loudest for civility fail to understand the roots of the problem. Using a combination of essays and answers to her Gentle Readers' questions, Miss Manners examines society's ever-rising level of irritation, from the classroom to the caucus room.

She shows the crucial role of etiquette in such contemporary issues as political correctness, multiculturalism, sexual harassment, educational failure and freedom of speech.

Miss Manners leads the charge toward a livable future rather than a return to the etiquette of past eras. But calling for civility without etiquette is like asking for morality without law, she says. Idealists who mistakenly reject etiquette as snobbish, repressive and dishonest fail to understand that manners form the philosophical basis for civilized life.

As society's common language of behavior, manners have always functioned as the modest partner of morality to protect the dignity of everyone, especially society's less powerful members.