You're Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery

Flattery is one of the most base of our basic instincts--after all, it is calculated truth-twisting for personal gain. Following on the heels of Jeanette Walls's recent Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip, this cultural history is a genial, witty and engaging account (honestly!) of human foibles, relationships and social conventions by New Yorker contributor and Time senior editor Stengel. The author draws on an expansive array of sources to illuminate his subject and to demonstrate how flattery has changed as civilization has evolved: from Darwin, who showed us how natural selection may favor a silver tongue, to the Hebrew Bible's depiction of God as highly invested in flattery, to the way in which the Italian Renaissance elevated flattery from an art to a politic. Stengel is at his most perceptive when he explores the presence of flattery in American culture. While the Puritans had little patience with or use for flattery, it came to have a more pronounced role by the early 20th century. Stengel is especially strong in his analysis of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, which, he claims, successfully attacked the Protestant work ethic by promoting slick flattery over hard drive and toil. This is a work of insightful social criticism. (June)