American ideal of the self-made man

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AMERICAN IDEAL OF THE SELF-MADE MAN

By

George Hasko

Abstract

This study is intended to review the philosophical and religious origins of the ideal of success and to trace its historical formation from Puritans to yuppies. The idea of self-made man evoked by the American Dream of the unlimited vertical mobility, strengthened by the frontier experience and the thought of self-reliance has survived. Its apostles have shaped its image from the rugged individualist of the wilderness to the "organization man" of our more and more bureaucratic twentieth century society. The stories of the famous self-made men have verified the social ideals in each epoch of the American history. This thesis outlines the mutual relationship of the ideas of success, individualism, republican thought, and lifestyles.

Thesis Supervisor: Miklуs Molnбr

Title: Assistant Professor

Instructor: Buena W. Reese

Contents

Abstract

Introduction

1. Idea of the Self-made Man: Definition

Part One Historical Review

2. Protestant Ethic: Colonial Period

3. Vertical Mobility and the Natural Aristocracy (Republican Thought of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin)

4. The Age of the Self-made Man

5. The Decline of the Protestant Ethic

6. Self-improvement and Self-culture: Ralph Waldo Emerson

7. Respectability Is the True Aim: Horatio Alger

8. The Self-made Man and Industrial America

9. The Reflection of Mobility in Fiction

10. Formation of a New Social Ethic

11. Philosophers of Success

12. Idea of Success in the Twentieth Century

13. Guides of Positive Thinking: Andrew Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, and Napoleon Hill

14. Success in the Twentieth Century Literature

15. Individual Success and The Society

16. Toward the Twenty-First Century

Part Two Social Ideals of the Self-made Man

17. Common Language and Lifestyles

18. Typical Representatives: From Puritans to Yuppies

19. Famous Self-made Men and Their Stories

John Winthrop

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Jefferson

Daniel Boone

Abraham Lincoln

Walt Whitman

Thomas Alva Edison

and Henry Ford

Conclusion

20. The Place and Value of the Ideal of Success

Bibliography

ideal success self made

Introduction

1. Idea of the Self-made Man: Definition

The concept of the self-made man is not an American creation at all. It has European roots. However, in the colonial period a vast range of written utilitarian materials attribute special value to the self-improvement. Pioneering implies a special brand of heroism and a kind of moral value. In that time the birth and breeding played a less important role and social prestige was acquired by those soldiers and good workmen who could achieve prosperity and become "self-made men". The American colonial experience ensures special opportunities for the expert workman, the independent pioneer, and they could prove to be "self-made men". Their virtues were celebrated in the works of famous personalities like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the like, who first formulated the American ideal of individualism and success. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 1-5.

Individualism is a belief in the inherent dignity of the human person. According to this belief, the individual has a primary reality and the society is a derivation, an artificial construct. The utilitarian individualism emphasizes the basic human desires and fears and it admits the rights of individuals to realize their self-interest whereas the society is nothing but a contract made by the individuals in order to advance their self-interests. The public good is usually identified with the sum of private benefits. Moreover, each person's unique core of feeling and intuition, which is not necessarily alien to that of other persons', should be expressed if individuality is to be realized. Bellah R. N., Habits of the Heart, Univ. California, 1985,p. 22

The nature of success has undergone considerable changes since the colonial period. However, the ultimate goals of a good life have always been matters of personal choice for Americans. There are three domains where a person pursues success and happiness; namely private and public life and material prosperity. As long as the rural way of life used to be dominant, the requirements of economic success were more easily reconciled with those of family and civic life. The economic success was concomitant with the good reputation of the citizen in the local community as a devoted family and public-spirited person. Nowadays, most of Americans work in a large public, and private bureaucracies. Success at work means advancement up the hierarchy and personal contribution to the progress of the corporation. Many people may face invincible difficulties in matching the requirements of economic success with those of the family and local community. The unquestioned absurd conviction that any hard working young man has the chance to become a rich and respected gentleman created and maintained the enthusiasm for the self-made man in the first centuries of the American history. However, in spite of the strong belief in the vertical mobility, the ideal of the self-made man has gone through considerable changes.

In the Colonial period, Puritanism, a form of Protestantism, was particularly influential. According to its biblical tradition, qualities like piety, frugality, and diligence are to be awarded in one's worldly calling. In the last century, especially in the post Civil War period, such secular values as initiative, aggressiveness, competitiveness and forcefulness were stressed since the ideal of the self-made man was exclusively seen in the individual's economic success.

The modern definition of success combines individual fulfillment and social progress. This thought about the self-made man is tied to the republican tradition first formulated by Franklin and Jefferson which presupposes that the citizens of a republic are motivated by civic virtue as well as self-interest. The public good is anything which benefits society as a whole and leads to public happiness. This third strand created the concept of natural elite of talent and virtue which was further developed in Emerson's philosophy of self-culture and self-reliance. Bellah R. N., Habits of the Heart, Univ. California, 1985, p. 22._

Part One

Historical review

2. Protestant Ethic: Colonial Period

Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. G. Lawrence, ed. J. P. Mayer, New York, Doubleday, Anchor Books, 1969, p. 287. wrote in his book about the American democracy: "the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on those shores." Though the puritans attributed great importance to material prosperity they believed it to be a sign of God's approval for the meritorious people. However they saw the basic criterion of success in forgeing of a community in which a genuinely ethical and spiritual life could be lived. Puritans formed a religious community the members of which were socially interdependent and participated together in discussion and decision making. Their collective memory, their unfortunate past in the fatherland defined those practices they shared. Besides the creed it was the hard work that maintained the morals. The imperative necessity forced their groups to fight for the survival and nobody had any leisure time for fooling around. They lived at the edge of the wilderness and the unknown American land which stretched endlessly west filled them with terror. Indian tribes threatened their lives from time to time, and they had to defend themselves. Because of their fathers' persecution in England their church had an innate resistance and position to any other sect. They believed in their vocation and Americans inherited this conviction.

Puritans set up an almost utopian community and at the beginning it was little more than an armed camp with an autocratic and devoted leadership. Their faith united them and gave explanation, reason and justification for all their sufferings. This common ideology helped them to accept an autocracy by consent. They considered the new land to be their chosen country and their self-denial, their purposefulness, and their hard-handed justice proved to be excellent instruments for the conquest of it.

It was a common belief that the new continent was a providentially created setting for a new race of heroes.

The unexplored areas to the west stimulated dreams. America was regarded as a land of special rewards for the courageous pioneer or the pious Pilgrim. Puritans successfully combined statehood with religious power so as to prevent any kind of destruction threatening the community on behalf of material or ideological enemies. The purpose which created this power was accomplished and the repression of order had become unbearable. People demanded greater individual freedom. Arthur Miller, The Crucible, (The Portable Arthur Miller), Penguin Books, 1976, pp. 137-140.

3. Vertical Mobility and the Natural Aristocracy: Republican Thought of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) combined the still existing Puritanism with his knowledge of both classical and contemporary philosophy and enriched it with his own experience. Being one of the apostles of the American Dream, by which the rise of an individual from poverty and social insignificance to a dominant position in the society is meant, his teaching of self-improvement implied the necessary formation of a self-selecting and self-disciplining elite.

He supposed that encouraging a new self-made leadership would lead to imminent social welfare and individual happiness. Franklin thought that industry and prudence of virtuous people together with the gifts of the conquest land would ensure rich and happy society. Self-discipline, wisdom, learning and responsibility toward one's fellow man as well as the social responsibility were stressed in his Memoirs as desirable human qualities. The self-education as the source of moral and intellectual development forms the second important theme of "The Art of Virtue" section of the Memoirs. Here Franklin listed thirteen virtues which derived from classical and Christian tradition and revised from the point of view of utilitarianism. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 10-15.

These virtues and their meanings in short are the following:

1. Temperance: Do not eat and drink too much.

2. Silence: Avoid superfluous talking.

3. Order: Allocate place and time for any of your activities.

4. Resolution: Decide what has to be done and perform it entirelly.

5. Frugality: Do not spend money unless you benefit yourself or others.

6. Industry: Do not lose any time. Never do activities of no use.

7. Sincerity: Tell the truth, do not mislead others.

8. Justice: Do not insult anybody with wrong intention.

9. Moderation: Avoid the extremities; be tolerant to those who offend you.

10. Cleanliness: Do not endure any dirt of body, clothing, and environment.

11. Tranquility: Resist the insignificant annoyance; do not be bothered by the unavoidable everyday problems.

12. Chastity: "Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring, Never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation."

13. Humility: Follow Jesus Christ's and Socrates' teachings. Hill N., Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, Simon and Schuster, 1977, trans. I. Janossy, Bagolyvar Kft., 1993, p. 100.

Franklin was largely self-educated. Born the son of a candle-maker, he was a poor boy who made a sufficient fortune as a printer and publisher and could afford to devote himself to his political and scientific interests. His Autobiography is the archetypal story of a young man who, though poor, can attain success by hard work and frugality.

His aphorisms published in his "Poor Richard's Almanac American Literature, ed. Andras Deak, ELTE, Budapest, 1993, pp. 21-26." had even greater influence on the readers and they had become an unalienable part of the common sense of Americans. For instance: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." "God helps those that help themselves." "Lost time is never found again." "Plough deep, while Sluggards sleep, and you shall have Corn to sell and to keep, says Poor Dick."

Franklin's collection of sayings on industry and frugality was published under the headings "Hints for those that would be Rich" and "How to get to Riches". His work "The Way to Wealth" is based on his former almanacs and was of great use to the poor and inexperienced. Since people hate to hear unpleasant truths, Franklin carefully constructed "The Way to Wealth" so that the moral spoken by Father Abraham is not addressed to the reader but to those people gathered at a "Vendue of Merchant Goods" who are complaining of the economy, the taxes, and their own finances and who demonstrate their own foolishness by buying "extravagantly". He gave clear advice to European immigrants as well how to get ahead on their own initiative: "If they are poor, they begin first as Servants or Journeymen; and if they are sober, industrious, and frugal, they soon become Masters, and establish themselves in Business, marry, raise Families, and become respectable Citizens."

Franklin thought that the meaningful promise of economic security and material advancement as the consequence of raising the level of reason and virtue of the individual would inevitable lead to the radical improvement of the society and freedom and justice for the mass of men would follow from this understanding of success. He wrote: "The people of this Province are generally of the middling sort, and at present pretty much upon a Level. They are chiefly industrious Farmers, Artificers, or Men in Trade; they enjoy and are fond of Freedom, and the meanest among them thinks he has a Right to Civility from the greatest." However Franklin understood that the society was reluctant to secure equal rights to all the citizens, and he mainly had in mind individual self-improvement and not its social context. He gave little attention to the embodiment of the self-improvement in social institutions. By the end of the eighteenth century many shared an opinion on automatically emerging social good in a society where each vigorously pursued his own interest. This thought would be purest utilitarian individualism however besides biblical religion and republicanism this was only one of the strands of the American tradition in Franklin's time. Bellah R. N., Habits of the Heart, Univ. California, 1985, pp. 32-33.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), author of the Declaration of Independence, formulated the principles of republican thinking in the clearest way. "All men are created equal" he wrote, however he had in mind political equality. "Americans all are republicans and federalists". He believed in the ideal of a self-governing society of relative equals. He agreed with Franklin that artificial aristocracy due to hereditary status had not been able to form an йlite in the society which had been suitable for the leadership. The criterion of inheritance had been a considerable hindrance for the most able individuals to rise to positions. However Americans were not divided into a few very rich aristocrats and a mass of paupers. Men superior to others in talent and virtue now had a greater chance to occupy leading positions in the society. Jefferson's program for America envisaged the facilitation of this vertical mobility. He had in mind the elimination of institutions emphasizing artificial distinctions among men and wished to create favorable conditions for the advancement of natural aristocracy. However Jefferson could not achieve to establish the system of the public education. His contemporary countrymen could not realize the positive aspect of his initiation. The probable reason of their unwillingness might be explained by the free land they might count on. The free land gave perpetual assurance of independence from England and it was more than that as agriculture then seemed to most Americans the only genuine source of national wealth. The expansion proceeded continuously westward and as the historian F. J. Turner wrote in 1903: "The western wilds, from Alleghenies to the Pacific, constituted the richest gift ever spread out before civilized man." As a result the Jeffersonian ideal gradually became a firm ideology of anti-industrialism, and later in the Civil war an ideological weapon for the South to stick to the traditional social system. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago,

1965, pp. 8-14.

Jefferson was a radical revolutionary. The purpose of the revolution, he said, was to effect needed changes in the existing social, political and economic structure. Even though he was born into the aristocracy, Jefferson had his hope in a society based upon freedom and equality of opportunity. He wanted to bring to the surface the talents and virtues that lay submerged in the plebeian strata of society. He believed that - America the chosen country - has room enough for the descendants of Americans to the thousandth generation. He could mitigate the controversies characterizing the early years of the new republic by his views. He admitted equal rights of the Americans to the use of their own faculties, to their entrepreneurship, to such human rights as honor and confidence from their fellow citizens, and dissimilar to the Puritan tradition he showed patience to other religions.

The westward expansion and settlement had brought about changes in the character of frontier pioneers. Such qualities as sturdiness, independence, scorn of social constraint had strengthened. Dominant individualism fed by great freedom had shaped a national character.

4. The Age of the Self-made Man

The civilized European colonists gradually shed their habits, stripped themselves of "society" and transformed themselves into the very image of "new world" and in this process the ideal of the self-made man played an important role. This ideal was shaped by didactic success stories. Rev. Enos Hitchcock's book in 1793 was the first one. Its title summarizes its plot: "The Farmer's Friend, or The History of Mr. Charles Worthy, Who, from being a poor Orphan, Rose, through various Scenes of Distress and Misfortune, to Wealth and Eminence, by Industry, Economy, and Good Conduct". The author himself, however, did not believe at all in the natural aristocracy, he thought that the fundamental values of society belonged to a particular social class and one could join it only if he had accepted all the habits and attitudes of that class. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, p. 15. Nevertheless the economic advancement as the only way of search of happiness seemed to imply many contradictions. It needed speculation which could not be accepted by the Protestant ethic. That is why the first self-help books prohibit this basic law of business life. They preach the omnipotence of the man's moral character.

However the individual pursue of happiness often led to a continual beginning over again, and mass of people was doomed to "perennial rebirth" and this was considered to be the process of development of American character itself. To achieve civilization and leave behind savagery was not an easy progress even if it was facilitated by the gift of the wilderness. The American, that new kind of person, was a character type of alloyed inherited values on the one hand and the challenges of the expanding frontier on the other. A representative character reflects in concentrated form the image and ideal of a meaningful life in a given social environment. It is more than a collection of personalities and individual traits. It provides a point of reference that gives living expression to a vision of life. The message of the sentimental novel written primarily by Protestant clergymen in the pre-Civil War period did not differ from that of any self-improvement handbook. The essential qualities characterizing the protagonist industry, frugality, honesty and perseverance were. This morally meritorious self-made man hero in spite of his extraordinary piety and temperance can not rise to wealth without any supernatural intervention. His practical actions or skills do not play any role in his successful career and neither are his innate genius and gentility stressed by the writer.

5. The Decline of the Protestant Ethic

The pursuit of the individual salvation according to the Protestant ethic assumed a belief in a moral universe in which rewards and punishments resulted from character. The religious salvation was not contradictory to any diligent worldly enterprise because the Divine Providence had given each individual a secular occupation however the Protestant belief in free will, in the efficacy of human effort, and especially in the value of a properly trained and disciplined character did not prove to be sufficient for individual worldly advantage in the decades of the developing capitalism. Jefferson and Franklin's secular philosophy in which the goal is a progress to a greater human culture replaced the longing for individual salvation. They imagined an open society built on democratic institutions and rejected the image of a static, hierarchical order. Americans celebrated the optimistic prophecies of material abundance and accepted the prospect of mechanization and economic expansion. Soon a revolutionary rise in productivity and a dynamically changing society became the basic features of the new country. Without an inherited aristocratic social order there was more hope to entrepreneurs for social acceptance as well as material rewards. Many early industrial entrepreneurs could give example for the ideal of self-made man indeed. They had begun their working lives as craftsmen, mechanics having small inventions and had risen to wealth and status as a result of their skill and expertise. Americans realized that the gap between the traditional religious and secular callings had become too large to bridge. They failed to synthesize accepted moral attitudes and changing values with the traditional formulas any longer. The effect of this ideological uncertainty caused the modern nervousness that afflicted mainly the intellectual workers, those people who strive for eminence or wealth and think of dilemmas of religion in an age of science.

6. Self-improvement and Self-culture Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays and Lectures, New York, Library of America, 1983, pp. 261, 262. (1803-1882) was a resigned Unitarian minister who created his own religion a transcendental philosophy of the Over-Soul. "Nature" one of his great works published in 1936 prophesizes the main principles of transcendentalism. Nature is regarded by him as source of Commodity, Beauty, Language, and Discipline. Traditionally, Christianity propagates a faith based on dualism; that is, Man and God are two separate beings, for Emerson man and God were not thus separate. He says that each individual partakes of the Universal Being, the Over-Soul. It is a divine spirit immanent in all things, in each individual. Therefore self-reliance and self-trust are well-founded. His teachings say "imitation is a suicide", insist on yourself, never imitate. "Any man must be non-conformist. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind". To be consistent means violation the self. Emerson preaches nonconformity and inconsistence and pragmatic thinking: "One can not know his own ability in anything till he does not try to do it." He writes: "The great man is who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence and solitude." The energetic young self-made man who never gives up his enterprise was, for Emerson, the living symbol of the self-reliant spirit. He was convinced that success was inevitable if one obeyed the intellectual and moral laws of the world. However it seemed obvious for him that one's possession of virtues without such mental qualities as coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience were not sufficient for becoming honored and wealthy. Emerson showed respect for great individuals. As the author of Representative Men (1850) he regarded Napoleon to be an йclatant model of worldly success. He did not attribute any importance to the fundamental Jeffersonian idea of democratic political community with its institutions for directing the process of social mobility. His philosophy synthesizing the diverse ideals of self-improvement and success was the highpoint of self-culture in America. In posterity, his thoughts influenced many writers and philosophers of pragmatism.

Walt Whitman, the poet in his "Democratic Vistas" (1871) supported the idea of the self-culture. In the middle of the last century many institutions, libraries, lecture-series and other organizations were established to make possible for workers and other rugged men to fully develop their individual personality. J. F. Cooper, the writer, however had skeptical views regarding the pursuit of wealth. He pointed out that such an ambition would inevitably lead to a decline in manners and morals, and deteriorate the cultural level. He was together with Francis Parkman, the historian the greatest critics of the ideal of the self-made man in their works. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 14-18.

7. Respectability Is the True Aim: Horatio Alger

The ideal of the self-culture and self-improvement found reflection in Horatio Alger's American Pie, ed. Miklos Molnar, ELTE, Budapest, 1992, p. 58. (1834-1899) works, which left a strong mark upon the character of a generation of youth. He wrote about 100 novels about ordinary boys, sons of a widowed mother or often orphans, who could rise from rags to respectability. His works attained extreme popularity.

In his most famous success stories: "Robert Coverdale's Struggle", "Struggling Upward", "Mark, The Matchboy" the writer shows how the cultivation of the hero's good qualities are rewarded. Good manners, educated speech, knowledge of mathematics and languages are basic requirements for obtaining respectability. The pursuit of wealth is not a primary aim. Material advancement is the natural consequence of a higher place in society. His protagonists dresses neatly and modestly and have a respect for learning. They are aware of the importance of self - education. All these heroes desire to make themselves useful. They are faithful and dependable. Nevertheless their rising in society often seems incidental. The plot always implies a lucky event which helps the boy to reach his well-deserved status. The importance of luck reveals the disguised recognition that his route to success requires some magical outside assistance. However he has to manifest a steady and firm character. The culmination of the hero's career is an ownership or a partnership in a successful business. Lasch C., The Culture of Narcissism, Warner Books, New York,

1979, pp. 122-127. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 14-18.

8. The Self-made Man and Industrial America

After the Civil-War period mechanization took command and throughout the Gilded Age great economic and political changes justified the celebrations of machinery and railroad, which was the symbol of the age, as well as optimistic prophecies of abundance. From 1865 the middle class underwent dynamic changes, differentiations of vocation, values, and outlook. Free Americans, blacks and women not included yet, were convinced that personal security and independence are their birthright. These factory workers, farmers, small merchants, and manufacturers were willing to work busily on the homesteads, small farms, or in any single separate ownership. Though their income generally was not high, their lives were complete within reach of all they longed for. A businessman was regarded successful if he could achieve a single separate ownership. He was the very model of a healthy and independent America. Working as an employee during the whole life was a shame and everybody wanted to put an end to it as soon as he could. The ideal of the self-made man became faith for working people. They believed that honest labor, frugal self-management, and disciplined personal character guarantee and ensure them advancement and security. Republicans viewed labor as the only promising means to self-improvement.

"Property is the fruit of labor, property is desirable; is a positive good in the world", taught Abraham Lincoln; "that some would be rich shows that others may become rich". In 1870's and 1880's there was an international "great depression" which afflicted all industrial nations with chronic overproduction and dramatically falling prices, however these severe economic fluctuations seemed to promote radical changes in the system of economy and more complex and centralized social organizations such as cities, corporations, and political institutions had been created. However the public attention was not focused on the growing importance of groups of interest different from the native Protestant middle class. Trachtenberg A., The Incorporation of America, Hill and Wang,

1990, pp. 38-50.

9. The Reflection of Mobility in Fiction

In the second half of the nineteenth century the image of success gradually transformed from social advancement and reputation to a material success in business. A few captains of industry who had lowly origin and could become multimillionaires conveyed the exemplary. Though they seemed to be morally dubious they were regarded prominent individuals, and models of the self-made man. Their successful life was explained mainly by self-help, venturesome risk taking and to a lesser degree by luck and pluck. Nevertheless sentimental Algerism emphasizing the self - improvement survived in such bestsellers as for example in Mrs. Southworth's "Ishmael" and E. P. Roe's "Barriers Burned Away". In these books the enemies of traditional ideals of the ambitious middle class are beaten and the self-made man triumphs over them. This fighting spirit reveals the uncertainty in the faith of the material success as a result of a virtuous life. T. S. Denison, author of "The Modern Mammon", made proposals how to defeat and eliminate shrewdness, dishonesty and other "un-American" way of manipulation of poor but honest people and how to improve the society so that such positive qualities as industry, frugality, piety and integrity should win their proper rewards in it. The literature idealized a kind of self-made man who claimed not only social respect but material prosperity as well. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 19-23. The promise that someone's industrious labor assures inevitable rise to the rank of independent entrepreneur remained a theoretical opportunity for most honest laborers who found themselves locked in a wage system of any corporations of the Gilded Age. They had small hope of release from toil, their dreams about status, success and wealth had never come true. The great writers as Mark Twain, Henry James, and W. D. Howells in their realistic works tried to formulate the deeper cultural implications of the new industrial society. They criticized the traditional image of the self-made man, and questioned the middle class's claim to be the sole repository of virtue in America.

Mark Twain regarded Alger's books as out-dated guides for American youth. He had a skeptical opinion on their usefulness. He realized that utilitarian individualism which views society as arising from a contract that individuals enter into only in order to advance their self-interest could not solve the problems of nineteenth-century America. The rational reorganization of economy which brought into existence new institutions in 1880's created a completely different social background for the traditional teachings of the self-improvement. However most of the contemporary writers could not notice and portray these changes in their entirety. Even Mark Twain explained the meaning of American democracy with the overspread idea of self-improvement. However he attempts to show the negative traits of this democracy as well in his works "The Gilded Age", "Life on the Mississippi" etc. He himself being a self-made man he attacked privileged hereditary aristocracy in his novels "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and "The Mysterious Stranger". His later short stories "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" and "What is a Man?" reflected his overwhelming pessimism about human corruption and stupidity. The ideology that only the competitive enterprise leads to success laid great stress on the entrepreneurs who were predominantly Protestant families of Anglo-Saxon origins. For Mark Twain it was Hank Morgan, the "Boss", who represented the Yankee. The protagonist of Henry James's novel "The American" was a millionaire with a meaningful name: Christopher Newman. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, p. 24.

10. Formation of a New Social Ethic

Possessing material assets and cultural homogeneity the middle class claimed to be the embodiment of Americanism and labor was considered to represent a foreign culture, alien to American values. The public image of the wage worker had changed, and in the press they were refered to as despised, "unwashed", and "unenlightened" masses, and also ridiculed if they happened to be immigrants from overseas. Toward the end of the century the vertical mobility had slowed down and the gap between the classes had become wider. The unrestricted immigration, and rising Romanism had threatened the integrity of the Protestant faith and the Anglo-Saxon race. Political reform movements intended to reduce the ever growing tension between the classes. Trachtenberg A., The Incorporation of America, Hill and Wang, 1982, pp. 70-78. Andrew Carnegie, the tycoon popularized his worldly wisdom. However this warning of his sounded falsely: "You know that there is no genuine, praiseworthy success in life if you are not honest, truthful, and fair-dealing." The public knew well that in the hard competition of the business world the ability to organize and mobilize, the recognition of the opportunities, counted for more than the individualistic virtues as thrift and diligence. It had become clear that the business world did not differ much from a battlefield, where all was fair which assured of success and wealth or in other words victory and power. It had become obvious that the ideal of individual self-improvement proved in a failure. Reformers began to search for another principle of social organization and individual ethics. The new social gospel outlined by Jane Addams formed the basis of the relationship between the individual and the social order. In politics new concepts were created e.g. social democracy, and new measures were taken in order to reduce tensions brought about by the working and living conditions of the socially disadvantaged masses. Politicians suggested social reforms so as the government could control the situation. A remarkable progress could be detected in education owing to the pragmatic thinking of the philosopher John Dewey. The process of restructuring of enterprises into corporations was steadily advancing. The familiar forms of capital ceased to remain typical any longer and its importance diminished. A new kind of thinking about success had become inevitable. Trachtenberg A., The Incorporation of America, Hill and Wang, 1982, pp. 70-78.

11. Philosophers of Success

Now the American national background was no longer personified only in the hero of the Revolution and the Civil War and in the dauntless pioneer in the frontier society, but in the "rugged" individualist as well, whose empires were of steel and oil. America owed its growth to such human qualities as courage, endurance and sacrifice along with ruthless exploitation and cruel indifference to others' well-being. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution which assumpts the survival of the fittest had created a scientific basis for the ideology of individual material achievement. The philosophers of success attempted to complete the earlier synthesized Protestant religious and secular demands and the gospel of self-improvement with a theory that placed emphases on competition. Now the true self-made man was imagined as a self-improving dynamic competitor in the area of business enterprise who could boast of significant economic advancement. The premise of this new ideology of success declared that all the individuals were equally fit at birth. The failure was explained by some defects in the individual's character and will. Lack of self-confidence or self-control or initiative or any other way of expression of individual's "inner potency" could be the reason of the failure. The complex entirety of all those qualities that ensured competitiveness and after all material success were considered more important than all the traditional self-disciplinary virtues. This unspecified potential of the individual was termed as "THAT SOMETHING" and was regarded as the usual source of respectability and an inner force that determined the elevation in the society. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 25-30. Andrew Carnegie said: "If any continue through life in the condition of hired laborer, it is not the fault of the system, but because of either a dependent nature which prefers it, or improvidence, folly, or singular misfortune." This concept of "character" was the main feature of ideology of providential success in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Herbert Spencer's Social Darwinism had been completely accepted. Even Andrew Carnegie admitted that: "We cannot evade the competition. And while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department." John D. Rockefeller similarly accepted the spirit of the age and said: "The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest, the working out of a law of nature and a law of God." The new idea of success proved to be an effective instrument in transforming of enterprises into corporations. The dynamic development of the industry was attributed partly to the innovations of prominent individuals as Thomas Alva Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park and Henry Ford, the father of the mass production of the T-model on assembly line and that of the standardization of the parts of machine. Both of them were archetypes of the self-made man of the age. Their common qualities emphasized by the press implied natural genius, flourishing without formal school training, and their instinctual entrepreneurship and organizational ability. Trachtenberg A., The Incorporation of America, Hill and Wang, 1982, pp. 60-70.

Mechanization entailed the transference of technical knowledge from workers to machines, and these machines had to be designed by trained engineers. The public education had completely changed after the Civil War. Instead of the out-of- date mechanics' institutes and lyceums mercantile colleges and business schools were established and they became the institutions of the self-culture. Soon new universities supplied the needs of the industry. By the end of the century the classic American individualism based on the free and virtuous labor had belonged to the past. The development of the philosophy of success was the concomitant of the incorporation of America. It can be detected by the changes in the self-help literature. Instead of the detailed discussion of virtues the sermons were full of parables. They were illuminating reports of dramatic events ending in success or failure. Besides the propagation from the pulpit the instructive stories were published in the popular middle-class magazines as well. Russell Conwell's "Acres of Diamonds", Elbert Hubbard's "A Message to Garcia", W. W. Woodbridge's "That Something", and Dey's "Magic Story" can be reckoned among the most popular books of this era. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 30-50.

12. Idea of Success in the Twentieth Century

In the industry based on the mass production a great number of jobs were created to meet the requirements of the management of big corporations. In the factories new departments such as public relations, marketing, and accounting made the work well-organized. They carried out the necessary promotional activities. This apparatus consisted of white collar workers who did not pursue success in the traditional sense of the word but they wanted to justify their fitness for the groups or organizations they belonged. This need for adjustment characterized the new kind of employees first of all. The rhetoric of self-improvement and success continued to attribute great importance to the inner drive for achievement. However the new American seemed to become more and more responsive to the opinions of others. David Riesman's "Lonely Crowd" Riesman D., The Lonely Crowd, Yale Univ., 1950 drew the attention to changing of the American character from inner-directed to other-directed and gave definitions of these proposed types. Mainly the traditional and inner-directed types characterized American culture from the Colonial up to the post-Civil-War period and seemed to be an alloy of biblical, republican, and utilitarian individualistic types. While the conformist other-directed person regarded to be sensitive to the pressures of the social environment. This transformation of American character started in the years of the developing corporate life. Bellah R. N., Habits of the Heart, Univ. Calif., 1985, p.49. Even the philosophers of success imagined the self-made man as an inner-directed type however at the beginning of the twentieth century this fictive character grew less and less relevant. The employees' ambition was to attain status rather than success. They dared not dream about individual material independence and entrepreneurship. The ideal of the self-made man could not serve the individual and social goals any longer. It had gradually become obsolete. Programs hallmarked by Presidents' names, Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom and T. D. Roosevelt's New Deal intended to facilitate the private initiative in the economy; however, they had not fulfilled the expectations. Though these social and economic reforms tried to establish a planned economy they were not able to create a society of equal opportunity. Neither could relevant changes be detected in educational organization and content in this period. The competition and the relations between the corporations had exacerbated and they had become economic fighting units. The employers' practices were rather discriminatory due to ethnicity, racial and sexual prejudices. These feelings proved to be in many cases stronger forces than class identification. The nation had not been able to make its original principle, "E Pluribus Unum", come true. Cawelti J. G., Apostles of the Self-made Man, Univ. Chicago, 1965, pp. 50-75.

13. Guides of Positive Thinking: Andrew Carnegie, N. V. Peale, and Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" was published in 1937. Both this book and A. Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" (1936) summarized the multimillionaire A. Carnegie's philosophy of success. A. Carnegie was fascinated by his own career. Being an archetype of the self-made man he tried to unravel the secret of success. He claimed that he was stimulated by a simple thought: "Anything in life worth having is worth working for!" N. Hill emphasizes the power of thoughts, desires, beliefs, skills, imagination, regular planning, decisions, and perseverance. These nineteenth century ideas of the individual success were completed by autosuggestion, the importance of the brainstorm or "mastermind", the transmutation of sexual drive, the subconscious, and the influence of the great people. The author invented or quoted proverb-like sayings so as to supply the reader with guiding principles such as: "What a human mind can conceive and believe in is realizable"; "Spirit has no limits only if we recognize any"; "Both poverty and wealth are born by thoughts and beliefs"; "Each failure carries the seeds of a greater advantage"; "Knowledge paves the route to wealth if you know which way to choose"; "However intelligent a tool may be it is unworthy without man"; "Success does not claim any explanation"; "Failure does not accept any alibis"; "Any powerful man is a subject of his own power"; "The secret of happiness is in activity and never in possession"; "Greatness of a man is measured by his thoughts"; "Without a sense of fear one can grow to unlimited riches"; etc. Fear and anxiety were considered to be the most relevant hindrance in making a successful career. The basic types of fear that prevent the individual from changing his life are: fear from poverty, judgment, illness, old age, and death. Sometimes fear from losing somebody else's love has paralyzing effect. Fear characterizes the negative thinking, it is loser's mentality therefore it has to be conquered along with the inferiority complex. The adequate self-knowledge and workable rules and routines given in the books help with overcoming the daily problems. Hill N., Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, Simon and Schuster, 1977, ends of the chapters The bibliography of American studies on success has listed titles which are eloquent enough to point to the authors' new relevant thoughts as well as reasons for occurrence of the individual success or failure. For example: C. Baudoin's "Suggestion and Autosuggestion", L. Bienstock's "The Power of Faith", C. Bristol's " The Magic of Believing", E. L. Clarke's "The Art of Straight Thinking", L. C. Douglas's "Magnificent Obsession", A. F. Osborn's "Applied Imagination", and N. V. Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking". Nowadays there is a tendency to explain the phenomena of success through a positive mental attitude. Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone's book having an identical title i. e. "Success through a Positive Mental Attitude" was published in 1977. It claims that there are seventeen principles of success Hill N., Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, Simon and Schuster, 1977, p. 116., namely:

1. Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)

2. Unambiguous and firm intention; clear and correct objective

3. Willingness to do extra work

4. Correct thinking

5. Self-discipline

6. Mastermind

7. Practiced faith

8. Pleasant personality

9. Individual initiative

10. Enthusiasm

11. Concentrated attention

12. Teamwork

13. Defeat as a lesson

14. Inventive imagination

15. Making good use of time and money

16. Preservation of mental and bodily health

17. Making use of the cosmic laws of Universe

The authors enumerate thirty one significant reasons Hill N., Think and Grow Rich, Wilshire Book Co., 1972, pp. 97-101. of failure, too. These are:

1. Handicap in the inherited qualities

2. Absence of well-determined objectives

3. Lack of ambition

4. Deficiency in qualification

5. Lack of self-discipline

6. Poor state of health

7. Disadvantageous influence of environment in childhood

8. Postponement

9. Lack of perseverance

10. Negative personality

11. Deficiency in control of the sexual drive

12. Infringement of the principle of reciprocity: You cannot get anything without giving anything in return.

13. Missing aptitude for making well-founded decisions

14. Incidence of one or more out of the six forms of fear

15. Unfortunate marriage

16. Excessive carefulness

17. Wrongly chosen business partners

18. Superstition and prejudices

19. Unsuitable profession

20. Deficiency in concentration of efforts

21. Lavish spending of money

22. Absence of enthusiasm

23. Intolerance to others' faith, race, and political conviction

24. Intemperance

25. Inaptitude for co-operation

26. Wealth and power obtained without any effort (inheritance)

27. Deliberately dishonest and corrupt practice

28. Selfishness and vanity

29. Guessing instead of thinking

30. Shortage of capital

31. Any other reason that different from the above-mentioned ones

Besides the didactical message about some mechanical steps and simple rules to be followed in life, there can be read several exemplary stories in nutshell on self-made men in these books as well. They also may be regarded as training guides for managers and salesmen. Although oversimplifying the new developments of psychology the authors made use of them and endeavored to attribute individual failure to certain deficiencies of character. It is a well-known fact that success evokes serene mental outlook and self-assurance. The advocates of the positive thinking reversed this logic. They claimed that these qualities were not only consequences but also preconditions of achieving individual success. There may be truth in their reasoning. However what is the point of having a successful life once you are satisfied and happy?

14. Success in the Twentieth Century Literature

"An American Tragedy" Theodore Dreiser's famous novel illustrates how life's illusions, America's destructive materialistic goals, dreams of wealth destroy the protagonist. The author denounces a number of social injustices and caste system as motives of crime. F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. Dos Passos, and J. London also drew the attention to the fact that the traditional ideal of success, and the pursue of material welfare through sex, or promising marriage meant despair, disillusion and ruin for many Americans. These novelists dealt with the idea of the individual success as subject matter in an increasingly critical way and regarded this dream to be one of the main reasons why American society itself had become disappointed. Nevertheless these writers did not intend to propose any reforms so as to change the social order. Though Arthur Miller's Willy Loman, the salesman, wants no more out of life than to be "well liked" he fails. It seems that the further decline of individualism is inevitable in the hard postwar period and it is the conformity that matters. American Literature, ed. Andras Deak, ELTE, Budapest, 1993, pp.7-16.

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