The book came out 15 or so years before the depression. America had a big social shift due to the industrial revolution and people found themselves doing jobs their parents never dreamed of doing. There was a lack of management at companies and a lot of people got promoted despite their social class and needed to learn fast how to fit in. There were other books published around the same time on similar topics.

I mean the book was written for people that grew up poor or socially isolated and made it to a low or mid management position by being good at following a system rather than motivating people around them. Most of the practices the book talks about are already common in a lot of areas with middle class or upper middle class families.

I thought the book was more to help insincere narcissist be more tolerable.