Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct, published in 1859, argues that individual character, industry, and perseverance are the foundations of personal and social progress. Smiles built the case on three Enlightenment ideas: environmental determinism, the late maturation of the intellect, and a belief in a beneficent natural order. The book holds that society advances through the widespread practice of self-help rather than through collective action or parliamentary legislation.
How many copies did Samuel Smiles' Self-Help sell?
Self-Help sold 20,000 copies within one year of its 1859 publication. By the time Smiles died in 1904, total sales had exceeded a quarter of a million copies.
What languages was Samuel Smiles' Self-Help translated into?
Self-Help was translated and published in Dutch, French, Danish, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Turkish, and in several Indian languages. Smiles noted in the preface to his 1880 book Duty that Self-Help had been more widely published and read in America than in Great Britain.
Why was Samuel Smiles' Self-Help controversial among socialists?
Socialists were divided over Self-Help. Robert Blatchford praised it as one of the most invigorating books he had encountered and argued it should be taught in schools, while a labour leader called it brutal and wanted it burned. Robert Tressell satirised it in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Jonathan Rose found that most pre-1914 labour leaders who commented on the book praised it, and that criticism in workers' memoirs did not become common until after the First World War.
How did Self-Help influence Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota?
Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota, was significantly influenced by his reading of Self-Help. A copy of the book is preserved under a glass display at the museum on his birth site.
What did Janet Browne say about Samuel Smiles' Self-Help?
Darwin biographer Janet Browne called Self-Help "the bible of the improving middle classes" and said it highlighted the belief in entrepreneurial improvement sweeping into every arena of mid-century existence. The book has also been described more broadly as "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism."