Born Losers: A History of Failure in AmericaWhat makes somebody a Loser, a person doomed to unfulfilled dreams and humiliation? Nobody is born to lose, and yet failure embodies our worst fears. The Loser is our national bogeyman, and his history over the past two hundred years reveals the dark side of success, how economic striving reshaped the self and soul of America. From colonial days to the Columbine tragedy, Scott Sandage explores how failure evolved from a business loss into a personality deficit, from a career setback to a gauge of our self-worth. From hundreds of private diaries, family letters, business records, and even early credit reports, Sandage reconstructs the dramas of real-life Willy Lomans. He unearths their confessions and denials, foolish hopes and lost faith, sticking places and changing times. Dreamers, suckers, and nobodies come to life in the major scenes of American history, like the Civil War and the approach of big business, showing how the national quest for success remade the individual ordeal of failure. Born Losers is a pioneering work of American cultural history, which connects everyday attitudes and anxieties about failure to lofty ideals of individualism and salesmanship of self. Sandage's storytelling will resonate with all of us as it brings to life forgotten men and women who wrestled with The Loser--the label and the experience--in the days when American capitalism was building a nation of winners. |
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User Review - Daniel.Estes - LibraryThingMy expectations for this book were high and the results were underwhelming. I was looking forward to revisiting American history through the eyes of pioneering merchants trying to carve out a living ... Read full review
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User Review - Mary_Overton - LibraryThing"'The great American Assumption,' noted W.E.B. DuBois, 'was that wealth is mainly the result of its owner's effort and that any average worker can by thrift become a capitalist.' But the post [Civil ... Read full review
Contents
| 22 | |
| 44 | |
| 70 | |
| 99 | |
The Big Red Book of ThirdRate Men | 129 |
Misinformation and Its Discontents | 159 |
The War for Ambition | 189 |
Big Business and Little Men | 226 |
Attention Must Be Paid | 258 |
Notes | 281 |
Acknowledgments | 343 |
Index | 349 |
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achievement agents ambition American asked August bank bankrupt bankruptcy Beardsley became become bill Boston called capital century character City Civil clerks Cleveland Collection confidence Congress County Court Credit reports culture debt debtor December diary early economic entry failed failure February folder fortune freedom George go ahead hard Henry Hill History House identity individual James January Jenckes John Joseph Journal July June later letter Lewis Tappan Library Lincoln living look losers lost March Mass means Mercantile Agency merchant moral never noted November Ohio panic political poor record Rockefeller seemed sentimental September slavery slaves Society speculation story Street success Tappan thing Thomas Thoreau tion trade United University Press wife writing wrote York
Popular passages
Page 15 - Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
Page 20 - If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Page 221 - Some will get wealthy. I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good. So while we do not propose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else.
Page 262 - It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.
Page 221 - ... This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men; to lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.
Page 5 - The capitalistic economy of the present day is an immense cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents itself to him, at least as an individual, as an unalterable order of things in which he must live.
Page 74 - There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune, and so, in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this, and believe in magic, in all parts of life.
Page 319 - Evarts B. Greene and Virginia D. Harrington, American Population before the Federal Census of 1790 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp.
Page 156 - I am well acquainted with Mr. — , and know his circumstances. First of all, he has a wife and baby; together they ought to be worth $50,000 to any man. Secondly, he has an office in which there is a table worth $1.50 and three chairs worth, say $1. Last of all, there is in one corner a large rat hole, which will bear looking into. Respectfully, A. Lincoln.
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Born Losers: A History of Failure in America |
| Authors | Scott A. Sandage, Scott A Sandage |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press, 2005 |
| ISBN | 067401510X, 9780674015104 |
| Length | 362 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History / United States / 19th Century History / United States / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |