How Civility Works

Relevant to every campaign season, but particularly this year’s, How Civility Works (Stanford University Press) explores the question “Is civility dead?” Keith Bybee ’87 argues that the crisis in civility is caused by the contradictions on which civility depends. The lack of civility in public life can be explained by the notion that what makes civility ineffective is also what makes it so appealing and powerful. Bybee is a professor of law and of political science at Syracuse University.