Etiquette in Society, in Business, and at Home

New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1922. First Edition. Near fine/very good. First edition of “the blue book of social usage” with an enormous, and largely positive, impact on modern life, suggesting throughout, that today’s pervasive love of lights, noise, and commotion are not social instincts. Near fine with some minimal rubbing and offsetting to the endpapers (as usual), in the scarce dustjacket, with rubbing, chips, and short splits to the flap folds, but without restoration or strengthening. Emily Post’s comprehensive manual emerged during a critical moment in American social history, codifying behavioral standards for a rapidly modernizing society grappling with the democratization of manners previously restricted to aristocratic circles. Writing in the aftermath of World War I, when traditional social hierarchies were being challenged and newly wealthy Americans sought guidance in navigating complex social situations, Post created an accessible guide that balanced timeless principles of consideration and respect with practical advice for contemporary life. Her approach was notably democratic, rejecting the rigid class distinctions of European etiquette books in favor of standards based on kindness, sincerity, and mutual respect; revolutionary concepts that suggested good manners were accessible to all social classes rather than inherited privileges of birth. The work’s lasting influence lies in Post’s essential insight that etiquette serves not as arbitrary social convention but as a practical system for facilitating harmonious human interaction, making her prescriptions as relevant to modern professional networking as to formal dining, and establishing the framework for how Americans would conceptualize public behavior throughout the twentieth century.