This book is an investigation into how the etiquette books of the early Republican period attempted to shape society in terms of class and gender issues. The analysis of the books, which are important tools to “civilize” society in both the public and private domains, is important because of their effects on the different dimensions of the period’s discourse around citizenship. Through etiquette codes, the ideal citizen who would constitute the new privileged class of the Republic was to be constructed in accordance with the discourse of Wes ternization, but conspicuously adapted to local circumstances.