What Would Mrs. Astor Do? by Cecelia Tichi

What Would Mrs. Astor Do? by Cecelia Tichi ISBN-13: 9781479826858 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: NYU Press Released: Nov. 6, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Mark Twain called it the Gilded Age. Between 1870 and 1900, the United States’ population doubled, accompanied by an unparalleled industrial expansion, and an explosion of wealth unlike any the world had ever seen. America was the foremost nation of the world, and New York City was its beating heart. There, the richest and most influential became icons, whose comings and goings were breathlessly reported in the papers of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.

As the Old Money titans found themselves besieged by a vanguard of New Money interlopers, Mrs. Astor, an Old Money heiress, dictated proper behavior and demeanor, men’s and women’s codes of dress, acceptable patterns of speech and movements of the body, and what and when to eat and drink. An invitation to her annual ball was a golden ticket into the ranks of New York’s upper crust.

This work serves as a guide to manners as well as everything from the perfect table setting to the array of outfits the elite wore at the time. Cecelia Tichi paints a portrait of New York’s social elite, from the schools to which they sent their children, to their lavish mansions and even their reactions to the political and personal scandals of the day.


My Review:
What Would Mrs. Astor Do? talked about upper class society in New York during the 1870 to 1900 period. The author provided brief biographies of the people who set the trends (like Mrs. Astor), quoted people who lived during that period talking about what it was like, quoted etiquette manuals as to proper behavior (for dining, funerals, etc.), and quoted magazine or newspaper articles talking about what the fashionable set wore or did. She also talked about how people reacted to new inventions, like electricity and telephones, or new trends, like eating lobsters or department stores.

Some of the topics covered were: fashionable house furnishing, lady's department stores, where men got their clothing, gentlemen's clubs, lady's clubs, dining out, hat styles, walking canes, cars, horseback riding, sports, bicycles, fashionable color combinations for clothing, what to wear for many different occasions, street etiquette, letter writing, calling cards, what the fashionable ate and drank, theaters, restaurants, Central Park, Newport, the Bowery, sailing, train travel, ocean liners, Wall Street, schools, views on divorce, and funerals.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.