In the first edition of her classic book, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home, published in 1922, Emily Post advised ignoring the “elephant at large in the garden,” meaning a wealthy know-it-all. She wrote “Why a man, because he has millions, should assume he confers omniscience in all branches of knowledge, is something which may be left to the psychologist to answer.” Post’s book is now in its 33rd edition, but some bad behavior and good advice hasn’t changed in nearly 100 years. Read more about cultural norms in the last century in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).
