Character is capital : success manuals and manhood in Gilded Age America / Judy Hilkey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hilkey, Judy Arlene, 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Success in business--United States--History.

Success in business.

Masculinity--United States--History.

Masculinity.

Competition--United States--History.

Competition.

Industrialization--United States--History.

Industrialization.

Ethics--United States--History.

Ethics.

Social classes--United States--History.

Social classes.

Success in business--History--United States.

Masculinity--History--United States.

Competition--History--United States.

Industrialization--History--United States.

Ethics--History--United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (210 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina Press, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In late nineteenth-century America, a new type of book became commonplace in millions of homes across the country. Volumes sporting such titles as The Way to Win and Onward to Fame and Fortune promised to show young men how to succeed in life. But despite their upbeat titles, success manuals offered neither practical business advice nor a simple celebration of the American Dream. Instead, as Judy Hilkey reveals, they presented a dire picture of an uncertain new age, portraying life in the newly industrialized nation as a brutal struggle for survival, but arguing that adherence to old-fashioned virtues enabled any determined man to succeed. Hilkey offers a cultural history of success manuals and the industry that produced and marketed them. She examines the books' appearance, iconography, and intended audience--primarily native-born, rural and small-town men of modest means and education--and explores the genre's use of gendered language to equate manhood with success, femininity with failure. Ultimately, argues Hilkey, by articulating a worldview that helped legitimate the new social order to those most threatened by it, success manuals urged readers to accommodate themselves to the demands of life in the industrial age.

Contents:

1. The Success Manual of the Gilded Age

2. Success Manual Authors and Their World

3. Inspiration for the Battle of Life: The Possibility of Success despite Difficulty

4. Success or Failure

Which? The Exigency of Success and the Efficacy of the New Industrial Order

5. Choosing a Calling: Old and New in the World of Work

6. Character Is Capital: The Moral Definition of a New Middle Class

7. Manhood Is Everything: The Masculinization and Democratization of Success

8. Conclusion: Beyond Success.

Notes:

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 1980.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-202) and index.

ISBN:

9798890868930

9780807862032

0807862037