Self-Made

The Stories That Forged an American Myth

‘Self-Made’ success is now an American badge of honor that rewards individualist ambitions while it hammers against community obligations. Yet, four centuries ago, our foundational stories actually disparaged ambitious upstarts as dangerous and selfish threats to a healthy society. In Pamela Walker Laird’s fascinating history of why and how storytellers forged this American myth, she reveals how the goals for self-improvement evolved from serving the community to supporting individualist dreams of wealth and esteem.

Simplistic stories of self-made success and failure emerged that disregarded people’s advantages and disadvantages and fostered inequality. Fortunately, Self-Made also recovers long-standing, alternative traditions of self-improvement to serve the common good. These challenges to the myth have offered inspiration, often coming, surprisingly, from Americans associated with self-made success, such as Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, and Horatio Alger. Here are real stories that show that no one lives – no one succeeds or fails – in a vacuum.

• Traces the evolution of the ‘self-made’ myth from a sin to a source of individualist esteem
• Demonstrates that this myth is neither natural nor uncontested in America’s history and culture
• Locates the origins of the term ‘self-made’ before industrialization as praise for citizens who sought to serve the common good
• Highlights long-standing, often marginalized, traditions of self-improvement for community-improvement