In this revelatory history, Andersson (Fool: In Search of Henry VIII’s Closest Man, 2023, etc.) traces the far-reaching influence of dandyism from the streets of Regency England to Antebellum America, Weimar Germany, and, most recently, the inaugural pages of i-D magazine. While the book does detail forgotten trends in men’s fashion like hair parts, canes, and long jackets, Andersson is more interested in exploring each sartorial wave as an evolving social subculture, investigating their unique complexities amid the “murky layers of the populace.” “Dandyism” was established as “a word for well-dressed upper-class men, but it also [became] entangled with a type of conduct and excessive attention to appearance that are not included in the definition of a gentleman.” Andersson adds, “Jostling with the upper classes were many middling groups of clerks, shopkeepers, and apprentices, who were eager to have as respectable an address as possible.” The dandy’s peculiar presence gave rise to a wave of rakish lowlifes attempting to swindle the public by looking the part. This “rowdyism and larking” ushered in the “masher” at the turn of the century, a ribald lothario who would lurk around burlesque shows to profess their love to the dancers. Later, Andersson keenly connects the dandy’s sharp suiting with trends in gangster fashion and the zoot suits of the swing movement. Present throughout this centuries-long evolution is the sneering eye of the press, which spurned dandies as “effeminate members of a third sex.” Andersson pieces together details on styles and their offshoots through a relentless feed of sarcastic articles and cartoons, deftly using these baseless dismissals as keystones to better render the movement. Throughout each case study, the author artfully accounts for dandyism as an amalgamation of both a subculture and the public’s reaction to it, and he harnesses that clash to stitch together a formidable sociological history.