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Self-Help (Smiles Book)
''Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct'' is a book published in 1859 by Samuel Smiles. The second edition of 1866 added ''Perseverance'' to the subtitle. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism". Contents Smiles was not very successful in his careers as a doctor and journalist. He joined several cooperative ventures, but they failed for lack of capital. Disillusioned, he turned away from middle-class utopianism, and finally found intellectual refuge and national fame in the isolation of self-help. He extolled the virtues of self-help, industry, and perseverance. However, he rejected the application of ''laissez-faire'' to critical areas such as public health and education. According to historian Asa Briggs: :Self-help was one of the favorite mid-Victorian virtues. Relying on yourself was preferred morally—and economically—to depending on others. It was an expression of character even when it did not endure ... The progressive development of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Smiles
Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His primary work, ''Self-Help'' (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and ''laissez-faire'' government. It has been called "the bible of mid- Victorian liberalism" and had lasting effects on British political thought. Early life and education Born in Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, Smiles was the son of Janet Wilson of Dalkeith and Samuel Smiles of Haddington. He was one of eleven surviving children. While his family members were strict Reformed Presbyterians, he did not practice. He studied at a local school, leaving at the age of 14. He apprenticed to be a doctor under Dr. Robert Lewins. This arrangement enabled Smiles to study medicine at the Universit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
''The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists'' is a 1914 semi-autobiographical novel by Ireland, Irish house painter and sign writer Robert Noonan, who wrote the book in his spare time under the pen name Robert Tressell. Published after Tressell's death from tuberculosis in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary in 1911, the novel follows a house painter's efforts to find work in the fictional English town of Mugsborough (based on the coastal town of Hastings) to stave off the workhouse for himself, his wife and his son. The original title page, drawn by Tressell, carried the subtitle: "Being the story of twelve months in Hell, told by one of the damned, and written down by Robert Tressell." Grant Richards (publishing house), Grant Richards Ltd. published about two-thirds of the manuscript in April 1914 after Tressell's daughter, Kathleen Noonan, showed her father's work to her employers. The 1914 edition not only omitted material but also moved text around and gave the novel a depressing endi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-help Books
A self-help book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from '' Self-Help'', an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help. Self-help books moved from a niche position to being a postmodern cultural phenomenon in the late twentieth century. Early history Informal guides to everyday behaviour might be said to have existed almost as long as writing itself. Ancient Egyptian "Codes" of conduct "have a curiously modern note: 'You trail from street to street, smelling of beer...like a broken rudder, good for nothing....you have been found performing acrobatics on a wall!. Micki McGee writes: "Some social observers have suggested that the Bible is perhaps the first and most significant of self-help books". In classical Rome, Cicero's '' On Friendship'' and '' On Duties'' became "handbooks and guides.. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1859 Non-fiction Books
Events January–March * January 21 – José Mariano Salas (1797–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico. * January 24 (Old Style and New Style dates, O. S.) – Under the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia are united under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. It would be a principal step in forming the modern state of Romania. * January 28 – The city of Olympia, Washington, Olympia is incorporated in the Washington Territory of the United States of America. * February 2 – Miguel Miramón (1832–1867) becomes Conservative interim President of Mexico. * February 4 – German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovers the ''Codex Sinaiticus'', a 4th-century Uncial script, uncial manuscript of the Koine Greek, Greek Bible, in Saint Catherine's Monastery on the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Khedivate of Egypt and arranges for its presentation to his patron, Tsar Alexander II of Russia at Saint Petersburg. * February ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Summerbell
Thomas Summerbell (10 August 1861 – 10 February 1910) was an early British Labour Party Member of Parliament. Born at Seaham Harbour in County Durham, Summerball worked from the age of twelve in a variety of jobs before becoming an apprentice printer with the ''Seaham Weekly News''. He was laid off at the end of his apprenticeship, and moved to Felling, Jarrow, South Shields and finally Sunderland to find work. There, he worked for the '' Daily Post'' before starting his own printing firm.Margaret 'Espinasse, ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.IV, pp. 165–166 Summerbell was active in the Typographical Association and became a supporter of Joseph Cowen. He was also involved with Sunderland Trades Council, of which he was secretary from 1888, and was a founder of the Tyneside and District Labourers Union. Initially a supporter of the Liberal Party, he was elected to Sunderland Borough Council in 1892, remaining a member until his death. In this role, his major a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Johnson (Liberal-Labour Politician)
William Johnson MBE (c. 1849 – 20 July 1919) was an English coal miner, trade unionist and Liberal-Labour (Lib-Lab) politician from Warwickshire. He sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1918. Early life Johnson was born in Chilvers Coton, which was then a small village near the town of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, the youngest son of John Johnson, a collier. He was educated at Collycroft School, and began work young, in both factories and collieries. Career In 1885 Johnson became secretary to the Warwickshire Miners Association. After serving on several local bodies he was elected to Warwickshire County Council for Bedworth, becoming an alderman by 1916, by which times he was also chairman of Bedworth Parish Council, treasurer of the Midland Miners Federation, a Free and Accepted Mason of the Grand Lodge of England, a Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Warwickshire, and a governor of the Nicholas Chamberlain School Foundation. He first stood for election to Parlia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party, often referred to as Labour, is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. The party has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. It is one of the Two-party system, two dominant political parties in the United Kingdom; the other being the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party. Labour has been led by Keir Starmer since 2020 Labour Party leadership election (UK), 2020, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 general election. To date, there have been 12 Labour governments and seven different Labour Prime Ministers – Ramsay MacDonald, MacDonald, Clement Attlee, Attlee, Harold Wilson, Wilson, James Callaghan, Callaghan, Tony Blair, Blair, Gordon Brown, Brown and Starmer. The Labour Party was founded in 1900, having e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Blatchford
Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford (17 March 1851 – 17 December 1943) was an English socialist campaigner, journalist, and author in the United Kingdom. He was also noted as a prominent atheist, nationalist, and opponent of eugenics. In the early 1920s, after the death of his wife, he turned towards spiritualism. Early life Blatchford was born 17 March 1851 in Maidstone, Kent. His parents, John Glanville Blatchford, a strolling comedian, and Georgina Louisa ''nee ''Corri 1821–1890), an actress – named him after the Conservative Prime Minister Robert Peel who died the year before. His maternal great-grandfather, Domenico Corri, (1746–1825), was an Italian musician and publisher who, in the late 18th century, moved from Rome to Edinburgh to teach music. One of his grandnieces, Christine Glanville (1924–1999), was an acclaimed English puppeteer. Blatchford's father died in 1853, leaving him in the care of his mother. She continued her acting career for nine years, and Bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sakichi Toyoda
was a Japanese inventor and industrialist who founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works (later Toyota Industries). The son of a farmer and sought-after carpenter, he started the Toyoda family companies. His son, Kiichiro Toyoda, would later establish Japan's largest automaker, Toyota. Toyoda is referred to as the "King of Japanese Inventors". Early life and education Sakichi Toyoda was born on March 19 (the 14th of the 2nd month in East Asian Lunar Calendar), 1867, in Yamaguchi, Tōtōmi Province (present-day Kosai, Shizuoka), to Ikichi and Ei Toyoda. Ikichi was a carpenter and a farmer, and he taught carpentry to his son. Sakichi's boyhood would coincide with the end of the Edo period, replaced by the Meiji and its reformist policies. Sakichi was an avid reader in his youth, and he organized a youth study group for teens. Inspired by a trip to Ueno to visit the Third National Machinery Exposition, he later revolutionized the textile industry, powered by steam, oil, and electrici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Tressell
Robert Phillipe Noonan (17 April 1870 – 3 February 1911), born Robert Croker, and best known by the pen name Robert Tressell, was an Irish writer best known for his novel '' The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists''. Tressell spent his early adult working life in South Africa. It was in Johannesburg that he was drawn into labour organisation and socialist politics. In Johannesburg, he was also involved with some of the leading protagonists of Irish nationalism. He returned to England where he continued to work as a painter and decorator in Hastings and wrote his novel ''The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'', probably between 1906 and 1910, 'about exploitative employment when the only safety nets are charity, workhouse and grave.' George Orwell appraised it as a wonderful book. Early life Noonan was born in 37 Wexford Street, Dublin, Ireland, the illegitimate son of Samuel Croker, a former Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who was by the time of the birth a retired Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laissez-faire
''Laissez-faire'' ( , from , ) is a type of economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies or regulations). As a system of thought, ''laissez-faire'' rests on the following axioms: "the individual is the basic unit in society, i.e., the standard of measurement in social calculus; the individual has a natural right to freedom; and the physical order of nature is a harmonious and self-regulating system." The original phrase was ''laissez faire, laissez passer'', with the second part meaning "let (things) pass". It is generally attributed to Vincent de Gournay. Another basic principle of ''laissez-faire'' holds that markets should naturally be competitive, a rule that the early advocates of ''laissez-faire'' always emphasized. The Physiocrats were early advocates of ''laissez-faire'' and advocated for an ''impôt unique'', a tax on land rent to replace the "monstrous and crippling net ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
