{"product_id":"9780856835124","title":"The Spirit of Self-Help: The Life of Samuel Smiles","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the first full biography of the man who, in the industrial on-rush of the 19th century, gave the world the idea of self-help as a go-to strategy in an age of frenzied change. Using Smiles’s unpublished correspondence with family, friends and publishers, and drawing extensively on his writing, \u003ci\u003eThe Spirit of Self-Help \u003c\/i\u003etells the very human story of how Samuel Smiles came from a small-town, small-time family in Scotland to become, by turn and sometimes together, medical doctor, campaigning journalist, railway executive, best-selling author, and global celebrity. This is both a biography and a reflection on themes of success and failure, the individual and society, moral and material worth, and the relationships between these sets of ideas. Driven by its subject, \u003ci\u003eThe Spirit of Self-Help\u003c\/i\u003e revolves around the oldest idea of all – the possibility of happiness, for everyone, in all possible circumstances. In that sense, though set in the 19th century, this is an intensely topical book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers, Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47022256783600,"sku":"9780856835124","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780856835124_p0.jpg?v=1763831150","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780856835124","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}