Nigeria, Oct. 15 -- It reads like a lament of wounded nostalgia, cresting on a resigned sigh. "Knowing how to be a gentleman used to be straightforward: There were codes that were passed down, instilled, and strictly enforced. With both social mores and the nature of masculinity itself wildly in flux, that's not exactly the case anymore." That's the claim laid with trowels of suggestion by the editors of GQ.

They certainly stretch it. No fewer than 125 rules are suggested, some with greater sense than others. And they lack a contextual focus, misleading the reader about the origins of a title with a rich, mangled history entertaining, inconsistent and violent. For those fortunate enough to have a copy of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and...