Watching the English

Watching the English

by KateFox (Author)

Synopsis

In WATCHING THE ENGLISH anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope, and finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour. Her minute observation of the way we talk, dress, eat, drink, work, play, shop, drive, flirt, fight, queue - and moan about it all - exposes the hidden rules that we all unconsciously obey. The rules of weather-speak. The Importance of Not Being Earnest rule. The ironic-gnome rule. The reflex apology rule. The paranoid-pantomime rule. Class indicators and class anxiety tests. The money-talk taboo. Humour rules. Pub etiquette. Table manners. The rules of bogside reading. The dangers of excessive moderation. The eccentric-sheep rule. The English 'social dis-ease'. Through a mixture of anthropological analysis and her own unorthodox experiments (using herself as a reluctant guinea-pig), Kate Fox discovers what these unwritten behaviour codes tell us about Englishness.

$5.70

Save:$5.68 (50%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 432
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Published: 11 Apr 2005

ISBN 10: 0340752122
ISBN 13: 9780340752128
Book Overview: How does THE NAKED APE behave when he's dressed? The quirks and habits of the English laid bare.

Media Reviews
If you like this kind of anthropology (and I do) there is a wealth of it to enjoy in this book. Her observations are acute...fortunately she doesn't write like an anthropologist but like an English woman -with amusement, not solemnity, able to laugh at herself as well as us. * Daily Mail *
Author Bio
Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, is Co-Director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford. Her work involves monitoring and assessing global sociocultural trends, and has included research, publications and broadcasts on many aspects of human behaviour including: social aspects of drinking, sex differences, flirting, body image, pub culture, gossip, eating, health issues, taboos, horseracing, mobile phones, email, stress, drugs, crime, violence and disorder. Her publications have included Pubwatching with Desmond Morris, Passport to the Pub: The Tourist's Guide to Pub Etiquette and The Racing Tribe: Watching the Horsewatchers. Kate is also an international consultant on the prevention and management of violence, and has written and produced training programmes and videos on the subject. She is co-author, with Dr Peter Marsh, of Drinking and Public Disorder.