Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to the New Manners for the '90s [Hardcover]

Letitia Baldrige (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 1990

These are changing times, and here is the new encyclopedia of manners to guide us confidently and correctly through the maze of lifestyles, customs, and ways of relating to others that hallmark this decade. Much of the information in this book is new, because many of the situations it discusses have not existed as social norms before.

Letitia Baldrige is uniquely qualified to offer this timely advice. Universally recognized as the country's leading authority on manners and social relationships, she has been hailed on the cover of Time magazine as "America's leading arbiter of manners" and is regularly celebrated for the same expertise in the media.

Ms. Baldrige's book provides authoritative answers to questions about manners no one has had to ask before. Among them, the protocol involved in all the new family relationships -- stepfamilies, adult children returning home, and elderly parents moving in; child visitation problems and other complications of divorce; the new codes concerning sex and dating and women taking the initiative romantically; and men and women traveling together on business. She provides unique counsel on rearing children to say "no" to drugs, alcohol, and other destructive temptations and to have the exemplary manners that lead to success.

The book is also a complete updated guide to everything you need to know to handle the traditional rites and passages of life in line with current thinking (much of which is different from that of the past). This includes detailed information on weddings, funerals, and religious ceremonies; entertaining any number of people -- from one to one thousand; today's table manners, table setting, and table service; etiquette at work; proper forms of address for these times; and everything you need to know to converse easily in person or on the telephone, to write appropriate letters and notes for every occasion, and much more.

These are real manners for real people in today's complex world. Letitia Baldrige calls them "manners from the heart," and if you have such manners, the world will be with you.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Baldridge's experience as Jacqueline Kennedy's chief of staff at the White House and as social secretary at U.S. embassies in Europe lend weight to her counsel on etiquette dilemmas. While advising on such tricky problems as eating a sloppy pizza, a woman's asking a man for a date, and how much to tip, Baldridge ( Complete Guide to Executive Manners ) also offers help for more important situations often unique to contemporary society. People nowadays, she declares, must get along in stepfamilies and with live-in lovers and cope with the myriad financial and logistic ramifications of assorted households. Detailed and accessible, her advice is an extension of the Golden Rule. Caring for others, Baldridge assures us, is the key to etiquette. Good manners are the fruits of sensitivity to human beings, "which translates to kindness, compassion and thoughtfulness." Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Baldrige updates her previous etiquette books--this is her sixth on the subject. By the 1990s she foresees social trends which will incorporate new patterns of behavior. Already topics that differ from the Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to a Great Social Life ( LJ 12/87) are included: adult children returning home; extended families; aged parents living with adult children; more on live-in relationships and second and third marriages; support of a family with an AIDS victim; and dealing with telephone answering machines. While Judith Martin's Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Century Millenium previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/89 is a sometimes whimsical update for 2001, this offers practical help for the 1990s. Recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/89.
- Mary Ann Wasick, West Allis P.L., Wis.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (March 2, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892563206
• ISBN-13: 978-0892563203
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,413,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Letitia Baldrige's books on manners have sold over two million copies; her previous guide to executive manners sold over half a million copies worldwide and has had sixteen printings. This is her thirteenth book. In her diplomatic career she served in the American embassies in Paris and Rome; in the White House she was Jacqueline Kennedy's chief of staff. She has served as a marketing consultant to many major international corporations and holds three corporate directorships. She produces management training seminars on business behavior for major American companies and professional institutions and writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column and a monthly national magazine column. She is a regular on major network TV programs. Letitia Baldrige and her family live in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful, sensible, November 30, 1997

By 

Greg Nordlund ([e-mail]) (Washington State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to the New Manners for the '90s (Hardcover)

Probably the most useful book I've ever read. Certainly the book which I draw from most in my daily life, from personal to business. Ms. Baldrige teaches us that there's a great deal of common sense involved in the course of good etiquette. A great gift for ANYONE - unless the recipient takes offense.

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars INFORMATIVE YET STIFF, August 20, 2002

By 

"jjmartinez3008" (Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to the New Manners for the '90s (Hardcover)

A book very down to the detail, with petty rules for plenty of everyday situations. Many other manners' books pay attention mainly to formal dinners, flower arrangements and wedding invitations. This ones does so for most of its pages, but it also provides advice regarding matters such as family life, manners with roommates, how to cultivate social life, sexual relationships at the office, and so on and so forth.
Still the reader should be warned that Letitia Baldridge's personal stance is, how would I name it?, let's say softcore puritanism. Here are some exemples to wit:
"Anyone who writes about sexual mores writes from a personal philosophy that is impossible to disguise. Mine is very openly pro-chastity as the only acceptable lifestyle for the young."
"[Manners with roommates] If you are planning on having sex on any particular evening, do it somewhere else. [Your roommate] should not have to put up with any rooommate's visiting friend of either sex (including an overnight lover) sleeping in."[Isn't this a bit too strict or have I got spoilt manners??]
"The right thing to wear - women [...] Know when and where to wear pants: It's okay to wear pants for sports and physical work.. Don't wear them on formal occasions, such as to a wedding. (I don't think they ever look right in church, as a matter of fact, but that's a personal opinion)"
"Every so often reinforce in the mind even of a kindergarten child the evil connotation of drugs - that they are like a wicked witch or a bad dragon [...] There really is no socially acceptable nonmedicinal drug. All are abused for the most part, even though people may start out using small amounts."[I am against drugs, but this is sheer obscurantism]
Anyway, the conclusion I reach after reading this and many others manners' books is that real manners are best learned in good novels, good films and just the social scene around you.