"But advice columnists aren’t just hypocrites and narcissists..."

HOW THE ADVICE COLUMNIST CONQUERED AMERICA

AND WHY WE'RE UNIQUE IN OUR HANKERING FOR ADVICE

But advice columnists aren’t just hypocrites and narcissists, even if they do display those tendencies once in a while. They’re all well-intentioned people who tend to get in the way of their own noble instincts. Many of them are social reformers who upended the status quo, expanded rights for women and minorities, and proselytized greater acceptance for different ways of living. Dorothy Dix, for instance, was an advice columnist at the turn of the twentieth century who used her platform to legitimize household work, urging her readers to strike until their husbands offered them a living wage. The writers I profiled are all idealists, eager to change the world, or at least get people to change their behavior. They share a curiosity for giant moral and emotional questions and an instinct for controversy.