A Practical Guide for the...

A Practical Guide for the 19th Century American Man: "The new middle class wanted to purchase appropriate manners, just as they could purchase fashionable homes, stylish clothing or the latest domestic gadget. From the 1850s on, the market was flooded with etiquette books which laid out to people who had never been exposed to such things, the rules of 'polite society'. In many cases, they also did not describe 19th Century America as it was, but as the author hoped it could become."