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The Grandfather of Self Help

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02/07/2009

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Grandfather of Self Help

Kate Williams investigates the success and legacy of Samuel Smiles's 1859 book 'Self-Help'

Kate Williams investigates the success and lasting legacy of Samuel Smiles's 1859 book 'Self-Help'. With Michael Portillo. From July 2009.

Historian Kate Williams investigates the success and lasting legacy of Samuel Smiles' 1859 book Self Help. 

It outsold both Darwin's On the Origin of Species and Mill's On Liberty, also published that year, and gave birth to the idea that we can all achieve greatness through the application of sheer hard work.

Kate finds out if it contains a message for our own times, examines its enduring popularity and meets some of those who have been influenced by its ideas, including former politician Michael Portillo, who also reveals the book's influence on Margaret Thatcher.

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