The Best-Selling Books in American History Include Self-Help Shams and ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’

The Best-Selling Books in American History Include Self-Help Shams and ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’

Many would assume that the most influential books in American History would be the Bible or the classical works that made the reading list for the Founding Fathers, like Vergil, Horace, Tacitus, , Thucydides, and Plato. But in reality, a canon of 13 simple best-selling self-help books from the Old Farmer's almanac to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are what may have established archetypes for the ideal American, from the self-made entrepreneur to the humble farmer.

Today’s guest is Journalist Jess McHugh. She explores the history of thirteen of America’s most popular books, chronologically tracing their origins in her book book AMERICANON: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Books.

From educational texts like Webster’s Speller and Dictionary and The McGuffey Readers; to domestic guides such as Emily Post’s Etiquette and The Betty Crocker Cookbook; to motivational and self-help classics like How to Win Friends and Influence People and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—these texts, many of which have sold tens of millions of copies, are the books that have, often subconsciously, come to define what it means to be American. They continue to shape generation after generation, reinforcing which ideals we should fight to uphold and encouraging a uniquely American brand of nationalism that is all-too-often weaponized to shut down new ideas that could change our nation for the better.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episoder(1075)

How Two California Wines Shattered Centuries of French Supremacy in a Blind Taste Test

How Two California Wines Shattered Centuries of French Supremacy in a Blind Taste Test

In 1976, nine French wine judges did the unthinkable: they blindly selected two California wines over France's most elite vintages in what became known as the Judgment of Paris. This shocking upset se...

12 Mar 36min

How an Italian Engineer with 700 Knights Defeated 100,000 Ottoman Troops at the Siege Rhodes

How an Italian Engineer with 700 Knights Defeated 100,000 Ottoman Troops at the Siege Rhodes

Throughout the 16th century, one man stood between the Ottoman Empire and European domination, yet his name has been largely forgotten. Gabriele Tadino was an Italian military engineer whose genius tr...

10 Mar 43min

Why America's Military Never Became a Threat to Democracy

Why America's Military Never Became a Threat to Democracy

America's Founding Fathers feared a standing army would inevitably threaten civilian governance. Yet 250 years later, the U.S. military remains a strange outlier among nearly every nation that has eve...

5 Mar 51min

How Christianity Shaped America's 500-Year Mission to Become a Holy Land

How Christianity Shaped America's 500-Year Mission to Become a Holy Land

Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists famously described the First Amendment as building a "wall of separation between church and State." This line has been the gold standard for thos...

3 Mar 52min

Every Communication Breakthrough—From Cave Art to AI Video—Exists to Tell Stories

Every Communication Breakthrough—From Cave Art to AI Video—Exists to Tell Stories

There’s an argument to be made that every technology advance in communication – from cave paintings to fake AI movie trailers – is at its root an attempt to tell stories. Our first night-fires created...

26 Feb 58min

The East’s Auschwitz: How Imperial Japan’s Secret Experimenters Escaped Justice

The East’s Auschwitz: How Imperial Japan’s Secret Experimenters Escaped Justice

During the Holocaust, Josef Mengele discarded every medical ethic to perform horrific human experiments at Auschwitz, including non-consensual vivisections, limb transplants, and agonizing surgeries c...

24 Feb 44min

The Chemistry of Conquest: Behind the USSR’s State-Sponsored (and Steroid-Powered) Olympic Glory

The Chemistry of Conquest: Behind the USSR’s State-Sponsored (and Steroid-Powered) Olympic Glory

Since the era of Joseph Stalin, Moscow’s rulers have sent Russian athletes into the Summer and Winter Olympics with one command: you must win. These competitors operated under a "win-at-all-costs" doc...

19 Feb 1h 3min

Daniel Boone’s Life as a Frontiersman and Adopted Son of a Shawnee Chief

Daniel Boone’s Life as a Frontiersman and Adopted Son of a Shawnee Chief

Daniel Boone is considered one of the United States' first folk heroes for his exploration beyond the thirteen colonies into Kentucky. His exploits are rightfully legendary. He famously rescued his da...

17 Feb 42min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
wolfgang-wee-uncut
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
grenselos
min-barneoppdragelse
alt-fortalt
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
synnve-og-vanessa
rss-dannet-uten-piano
fladseth
198-land-med-einar-trnquist
opptur-med-annette-og-ingeborg
rss-lilli-isabelle