Self-help way back then

March 1, 2013 5:28 PM

Self-help in the 19th century . . . During the Civil War era, if an ordinary person wanted to improve himself, what resources were available?

I’m interested across the board – continuing education, church activity -- recommendations from preachers, writers, politicians -- correspondence courses, etc. (Bonus: women's options). The holy grail is pure improvement, not just get-rich-quick. What would be an 1865 equivalent of Dale Carnegie?

posted by LonnieK to education (17 answers total)

The original self-help book was published by the pleasingly named Samuel Smiles in 1859.
posted by zeri at 5:39 PM on March 1 [2 favorites]

There were a lot of Guides For Young Ladies, though I don't know if that's what you mean.
posted by corb at 5:42 PM on March 1

1880s... Close!
posted by vitabellosi at 5:48 PM on March 1

I think the main resource would have been the nearest library.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:05 PM on March 1 [2 favorites]

Yeah, there were plenty of resources for "self-improvement", but I don't think they're what you think.

My understanding of the time is that people would be more likely to strive to be Good (as opposed to Wicked, in somewhat of a religious sense), or to strive to conform better to their role in society rather than to be more successful, or more self-actualized, or whatever function we'd say that the self-help industry focuses on today.

I'm basing this assumption on books like Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series and Anne of Green Gables. In those books (which are 20th century accounts of 19th century life, as remembered by people who grew up in your period), girls are always struggling to improve themselves by being better people. For instance Laura's sister Mary is "good" because she has good manners, treats people kindly, isn't impulsive, and conforms to gender norms of the time (quiet, dainty, tidy, etc). One of the main sources of conflict in all of the books is Laura's struggle to be more like Mary, or to be helpful to Mary, or to work harder so that Mary can have the things she needs. Similarly, Anne constantly struggles against herself -- similarly battling against impulsiveness, greed, stubbornness, and her wild tomboyish nature and struggling to fit into her community in appropriate ways.
posted by Sara C. at 7:11 PM on March 1 [1 favorite]

Public libraries were few and far between in much of the US in that era. The golden age of the public library in the US didn't begin until after the Civil War.

People lent books informally among friends; there were also membership libraries (some of which still exist, like the Athenaeum in Boston).

This may be helpful.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:11 PM on March 1

While I don't have great resources regarding specific books, the 1840s started a wave of fraternal organizations and similarly arranged groups. From the 1830s-Civil War, and then again in the 1870s-WWI, a lot of new groups sprouted up from the Masonic / Enlightenment revival sort of mind-set. Some of these fall more into religion/philosophy and New Thought groups; others very ritual oriented like the Oddfellows and Masons had been; others are things like 'The Ancient Order of Hibernians' for people of Irish ancestry; and then you have the abolition and temperance movements, which were pretty big in the 1850s and often had separate men's and women's leagues.

The Masons started the Eastern Star in 1855 for women and the Odd Fellows had their sister Rebekah movement at some point before that. (I'm working off Tabbert's 'American Freemasons' so it's a little weak on specific dates for non-Masonic groups.) Both of these tended to have civic- and self-improvement as goals.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:12 PM on March 1 [1 favorite]

Magazines were relatively affordable and passed from friend to friend, and had tons of self-improvement features. Perhaps most relevant to your question is The Young American's Magazine of Self-Improvement.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:16 PM on March 1 [1 favorite]

cobaltnine makes a great point about the importance of voluntary associations in that era. In addition to the ones already mentioned, the YMCA was just starting to gain ground in the US at that time; a number of temperance associations also had clubs, lectures, and publications.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:21 PM on March 1

I don't know how easily available this stuff would have been available, but some of Ben Franklin's writings included self-help components, including his autobiography and The Way To Wealth (which is not just about wealth). And by 1865 Emerson was deeply into his lecturing and writing career, and Thoreau had published Walden 11 years earlier.
posted by shivohum at 9:20 PM on March 1

you probably want to check out the great awakenings (jonathon edwards & charles finney) and the camp meetings/revivals. also, the holiness movement and phoebe palmer was a leader. her book the way of holiness is good. also hannah whitall smith who wrote the christian's secret of a happy life. lots of other women evangelists on that site under profiles. john wesley and the methodists. check out all of their writings/sermons, pamphlets etc. as for books the bible would be the main one and pilgrim's progress is another important one. william james' the varieties of religious experience was an influential book although it doesn't sound like a self-help type book. quakers like john woolman and his journal of john woolman.

the salvation army and the other groups already mentioned like the ymca & ywca, abolitionists, temperance associations that led to the suffragettes and other later groups like the oxford group that led to 12-step groups. settlement houses like hull house, etc. they probably all had pamphlets of some sort.
posted by wildflower at 9:20 PM on March 1

The Library of Congress has a page of books in the general area of self-improvement. I think it's interesting that there are three broad genres: advice to young 'ladies'; advice to farmers; and advice to young men, free from family, church, and other social strictures in the big city under the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the founding of such organizations as the YMCA owes itself largely to what we might now term a moral panic (i.e. without guidance, such men without proper social structures including wives would be drawn to taverns, brothels, and gambling dens).

According to the book US Popular Print Culture 1860-1920, though, the recognizably modern self-help book really didn't get going until 1870 or so.
posted by dhartung at 11:33 PM on March 1 [1 favorite]

Books got much cheaper during the antebellum era because of advances in technology. Public lectures abounded, I don't know if anyone has written about this abundance, but having read a lot of primary sources- letters and diaries and newspapers- from the era I know how common they were, and a wide range of people attended them. A bit of trivia, I read one account of a lecture that said approximately this: "he lectured to a promiscuous audience". It turns out that promiscuous just meant men and women in the same audience. I use that example to teach students about the OED, and the changing nature of word usage.

Check out the Chatauqua movement.

I've also read some unpublished accounts of classes for illiterate adults offered as early as the 1820s or so. Specifically, some young women on Nantucket started an evening school for sailors.
posted by mareli at 6:29 AM on March 2 [1 favorite]

I'd propose Self-Reliance as a fore-runner of the self-help book.
posted by reren at 8:22 AM on March 2

What great responses ... thx all! I see a lot of avenues to look into and a few real standouts.
Observations:
-- I'm sure posters are right about the different societal constructs and ways of thinking that obtained 150 years ago.
-- Sara C's point on goodness and wildflower's on the awakenings both align with my general understanding. I suspect real life for most people, like today, involved a mix of influences, including opportunities for material success, with religious goodness taking a higher place then than now.
-- Thx for the Chautauqua reminder. The first Chautauqua was 1874, and no doubt was expressing/responding to broad impulses gathering in the years before.

I'll give a little more context: I'm creating a fictional character who's not always certain about what success means. He's drawn to self-improvement-like ideas and programs. He doesn't follow every piper who comes through town, but he does talk and think about the offers and proposals he encounters. He has a much bigger role in the book, but if he can carry this one too he will improve (!) his authenticity and simultaneously offer glimpses into the world of 1868.
posted by LonnieK at 12:33 PM on March 2

And to the points about libraries --
Yes, and thx, but my question is about what people would read in a library. Not where to find books, but what books to find.
posted by LonnieK at 1:12 PM on March 2

A self-administered set of classics?

e.g. Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Harvard Classics, etc.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:34 PM on March 2