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Message: [QUOTE="Rich, post: 4293035, member: 9018"] Well, I think it's a matter of perspective. None of us were alive at that time so we have to depend on the writers to create a dialogue and atmosphere accurately evocative of that period in American history. I do believe that's how people in the upper crust conducted themselves back then....ceremony was prized, just as it was in Victorian England which basically ran the world back in those days and served as a societal template for most of the world. There's plenty of racism, commercial violence, underhanded business dealings.....it's just....done a lot more [I]politely[/I] than we're used to these days. Most of that veneer started to wear away after WWI, and really started to fall apart after the Great Depression and World War 2 once England was reduced to a shell of its former commercial influence. I know it's hard to buy. But sometimes you just gotta.....believe it, especially when it comes to these period pieces. If you've not already seen it I highly recommend 'The Knick' which is set about 20 years later but gives off the same vibe of late stage Victorian New York. I had a similar reaction when I read 'War and Peace' (yes, I have read it, twice) a few years back. Like, 'Whoa, the French and Russians really conducted these elaborate social dances?' [/QUOTE]