Self Help: With Illustrations of Conduct and Perseverance - Softcover

Smiles, Samuel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184664593X ISBN 13: 9781846645938

Publisher: Light House, 2006

Synopsis

Samuel Smiles (1812 – 1904) was a Scottish government reformer and author famous for arguing that progress can only arise from adapting to new attitudes and not by creating new laws. This volume is considered his masterpiece, within which he promotes thrift and argues that poverty is the result of irresponsible habits, materialism, and laissez-faire government. It is hailed as "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism" and brought wide renown to Smiles overnight. Other notable works by this author include: “Character” (1871), “Thrift” (1875), and “Duty” (1880). Contents include: “Self-Help: National and Individual”, “Leaders of Industry: Inventors and Producers”, “The Great Potters: Palissy, Bottgher, Wedgewood”, “Application and Perseverance”, “Helps and Opportunities: Scientific Pursuits”, “Workers in Art”, “Industry and the Peerage”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

About this title

Review

Much in Self-Help is still stimulating. Its central precept - the value of hard work, ingenuity, perseverance, thrift, a solid education - is in tune with American notions of workfare, not to mention the Labour party's espousal ... of a shift in the mission statement of the British social security system from 'hand-out' to 'hand-up'. Welfare financed by taxation is no longer chic. --The Financial Times, 29.06.96

So far from a shallow exposition of 'economic man', Self-Help is an uplifting study of individual morality brought to life by personal examples. --Lord Harris, The Times, 29.06.96

About the Author

Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was the father of the modern self-help movement, originating the much-used term with this 1859 publication. A prominent Victorian liberal, he advocated for universal suffrage among men. Smiles' frustration with the limits of government action, however, aroused his interest in motivating individuals to independently transform their lives.

Edition details

• Publisher: Light House
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184664593X
• ISBN 13: 9781846645938
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 388