Born losers : a history of failure in America
by
Sandage, Scott A.
Title
:
Born losers : a history of failure in America
Author
:
Sandage, Scott A.
ISBN
:
9780674015104
Personal Author
:
Sandage, Scott A.
Publication Information
:
Cambridge, Ma : Harvard University Press, c2005.
Physical Description
:
x, 362 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
General Note
:
"Born losers began as as a 1995 doctoral dissertation at Rutgers University"--P. .
Contents
:
Prologue: Lives of quiet desperation -- Going bust in the age of go-ahead -- A reason in the man -- We are all speculators -- Central Intelligence Agency, since 1841 -- The big red book of third-rate men -- Misinformation and its discontents -- The war for ambition -- Big business and little men -- Epilogue: Attention must be paid.
Abstract
:
"From colonial days to the Columbine tragedy, Scott A. Sandage explores how failure evolved from a business loss into a personality deficit, from a career setback to a gauge of our self-worth." "Sandage has stories to tell - not of celebrities who flopped before making it big, but of ordinary people who bit the dust. From hundreds of private diaries, family letters, and business records, he reconstructs the dramas of real-life Willy Lomans. Early credit reports reveal how experts tried to predict who would succeed and who would not. Hundreds of "begging letters" sought loans, jobs, or advice from men like John D. Rockefeller, P. T. Barnum, and Mark Twain."--BOOK JACKET.
Subject Term
:
Social values -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Losers -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Failure (Psychology) -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Capitalism -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Identity (Psychology) -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Stigma (Social psychology)
Social status -- United States -- History -- 19th century.