The handshake is very old. One theory holds that it began in prehistory as a sign of peace, since an open, empty hand shows that no weapon is held. A second theory suggests it was a symbolic seal on an oath, with two hands clasped to show a bond. One of the earliest known images is a 9th-century BC Assyrian relief showing King Shalmaneser III clasping the hand of a Babylonian king to seal an alliance. Ancient Greeks had a name for the gesture, dexiosis, and it was practised by at least the 5th century BC. Funerary stone carvings from the period show soldiers and couples joining hands.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.