In June we are planning to publish a new book by Ari Turunen, Not so great after all, so The Book of The Month is After you, madam – A short history of proper behavior by Ari Turunen and Markus Partanen.

This book is trying to reveal the sometimes surprising reasons for changing European behavior rules and to show that the consequences of development are not always positive, as the self-suffocating superficial luster of social etiquette teaches us. Etiquette guides explain how one should behave; this book is trying to explain why people behave in a certain way. The history of good behavior in many ways is rough but knowing it can be comforting because it helps to understand the emergence of some common habits of Western life style. The book considers what is in principle decent behavior. The question really is: Does the so-called etiquette exist or is it just a smoke curtain for human control, a kind of spiritual cage that prevents the natural, animal behavior of humans?