In the 19th Century, respectability was important in most of the Western world. Men and women of all classes strove for it. Sometimes the striving was emotionally painful and financially difficult. Possibly in reaction, artists in France adopted épater le…

On the Today show this morning, an aspiring old author, Mr. Joe McGinniss, hoping to write a book and cash in on the left’ s obsession with the dazzling former Governor of Alaska, Mrs. Sarah Palin, defended his locating next…