when and why did american and english table manners diverge? Did
standard place setting arrangement change in either country in the
last two-three hundred years?

---

Request for Question Clarification by mwalcoff-ga on 03 Aug 2002 22:47 PDT

Are you referring to the American custom of switching utensils from
hand to hand versus the European custom of keeping the fork in the
left hand?

---

Clarification of Question by amalasuntha-ga on 04 Aug 2002 01:58 PDT

yes, that is a conspicious and perhaps the most important difference.
The others are related: the English hold onto their fork and knife,
eating with both at once; Americans use the fork with the prongs
pointed up. Americans also can use the side of the fork to cut. The
American way of eating is more refined; the English/contenintal way is
more efficient.  I wonder why we Americans use one hand (and cross
over). Thank you

Dear amalasuntha, 

Thanks, what a great and interesting question to look into! 

The system known as the "ZigZag method" developed with the development
of utensils.

The European custom came from the Greeks, that set dining ettiquette
in which a person sould keep both his hands above the table during
meal (there could be several reasons for that, mainly probably so no
"secrets" would be traded under the table).

Forks came to the UK only in 1611, it one of the last European lands
to adopt them, and the usage of a fork was at first ridiculed at:
"Thomas Coryat, an Englishman, observes forks in use in Italy and
resolves to use one too. Back in England he is given the nickname
"Furcifer," means "fork bearer" but also "gallows bird." He is widely
ridiculed and considered effeminate and affected" (see
http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/custom/etiquette/utensil_timeline.shtml).

Therefore, when the first settlers came to America, the usage of fork
was not wisespread in Britain. However, as they continued to import
knifes from Europe, it came obvious that knifes became less sharp
(because Europeans moved on to using a fork to stablise their solid
food as the chop it), and the Americans, unaware of the invention of
the fork, used spoons to stabilise their food while cutting, and then
ate with the spoon in their right hand (when fork did come, by the
Early 19th century, they sometimes called it "split spoon").

As journalist Harry Roolhaart wrote, "The predominant theory pointing
to the origin of the zig-zag method of eating is that many Americans,
in the absence of forks, and because knives had come to be designed
with blunted ends, began to use their spoons to steady food. They
would then switch the spoon to the right hand to scoop up the bite of
food because they were accustomed to wielding eating utensils with
their dominant hand and because the blunt tip of the knife made this
cumbersome. Finding their non-dominant hand (usually the left hand)
largely neglected when eating in this manner, American table manners
came to adopt the habit of dropping the neglected hand into one’s lap"
. (see http://www.harryroolaart.com/article.php?sid=84)

Another theory he mentions (but dissmisses), is that it stems from the
Middle Eastern (and Indian) custom not to use the left hand for
eating, and regarding it as dirty: it was used to clean one's behind
in the toilet. (same source).

Further reading for the interested: 
From Hand to Mouth, Or, How We Invented Knives, Forks, Spoons and
Chopsticks, and the Manners to Go with Them by James Cross Giblin. New
York: Crowell, 1987.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/069004660X/ltc-political

The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski. New York: Vintage
Books, 1994. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679740392/ltc-political
(now you see how cool it is to be an historian!)

The History of Manners by Norbert Elias. New York: Pantheon Books,
1978. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394711335/qid=1028456598/ltc-political

For further reading, see also
http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/custom/etiquette/manners_intro.shtml
and the books recommended in this page;
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?lastnode_id=1261566&node_id=578708
-"European customs and practices Americans should have adopted a long
time ago"

search terms on google: 
"american table manners" history

A British (very very British) friend of mine attributed the American
style of cutting the food with the knife then switching hands with the
fork to eat to the poverty of those early Americans who could only
afford one knife that was passed around the table allowing time to use
switch hands and use your fork in your right hand to eat.

The British, having sufficient means for everyone to have a knife and
fork used the more efficient method of cutting with the knife
continuing to use the knife as a pusher of the food onto the back of
the fork.

I was impressed with the "official" answer though and give it superior
credence to my anecdotal addition.

seedy

This page (http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/Lifestyle/proper_table_manners.htm)
says the following:

The Continental (style), which most people consider old world is
actually newer!  It was introduced by the British around 1880, but
Americans were trying to instill manners on their frontiersmen.  The
new dining methods were rejected as disruptive in the middle of this
teaching process.   American society felt it would diminish respect
for the strict rules that were being established to remove the
barbarian image.