A genuine history, it's not. Stengel casts his net far too widely, finding the origins of flattery in the stroking and grooming of chimpanzees, which he sees as a proxy for the behavior of our earliest ancestors, and going right up to the latest Sharon Stone interview. Not to put too fine a point on it, but duh. Flattering the millions of Peale or Carnegie devotees would be child's play. Despite all the tsk-tsking you hear about the adversarial relationship between the media and public figures, the bond is really one of flatterer and flatteree.
People are always nervous about their haircuts.
The writer will be too proud to ask what you thought, will brood for months, and will start avoiding you in the street. When someone asks you to be candid, don't. Our enemies supply all the candor we need. JoAnn Gutin is a writer and anthropologist who lives in New York. Visit Salon Shop for editor's picks of recent fiction.