Summary

The author begins Chapter 1 with the story of Dale Carnegie, an awkward young man who became wedded to the idea that public speaking prowess could help him. After setting up the incredibly popular Dale Carnegie Institute, he also wrote a book in 1913 in which he stated that public speaking was a vital tool for people who wanted to succeed in business. The author ties Dale Carnegie's rise to what cultural historian Warren Susman referred to as the development of a Culture of Personality, which replaced the earlier Cult of Culture. "Character" focused on one's behavior in private, but "personality" was a response to the growth of industrial America and the need for Americans, who were increasingly urban, to interact with people they didn't know. It became vital to make a good impression on others. Self-help books, which had long been popular in America...