Will Americans Ever Lose Their Grip on the Handshake?
The handshake remains a prevalent form of greeting in America despite concerns about hygiene and dominance. While alternatives like the fist bump have been suggested, they may not be suitable for all situations. The handshake's persistence raises questions about its appropriateness in modern etiquette.
- ▪The handshake has survived various health crises, including the coronavirus pandemic.
- ▪Critics argue that the handshake can be a tool for asserting dominance rather than a friendly greeting.
- ▪Alternatives to the handshake, such as the fist bump, have been proposed but may not fit all social contexts.
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Time-Travel ThursdaysWill Americans Ever Lose Their Grip on the Handshake?This default greeting isn’t always as friendly and egalitarian as it seems.By Tom BartlettIllustration by The Atlantic. Source: duncan1890 / GettyMay 21, 2026, 2:23 PM ET ShareSave This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here.In February 1896, when the germ theory of disease was still fairly new, an Atlantic writer wondered whether the “good old-fashioned hand-shake” would survive into the next century: “Will it some time be as obsolete as the curtsy with which our grandmothers greeted the beaux of their day, or the kiss that the gallant impressed on the fragile hand that he raised so respectfully to his lips?”Yet all these years…
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