Self Help Books in the 1950s

[FedoraFan112390]

Question:

I was looking at old family pictures which date from the mid-late 50s (sometime between 1956 and 1958) and I noticed on my grandparent's bookshelf, amongst other books, were two self help books. One was titled "The New Way to Relax", the other, "How Am I Doing?"

I was curious--Were self help books popular in the '50s? I know they were big in the 90s, but--Not sure about the 50s. Were my grandparents (it's was my grandmother who read them) a little ahead of their time or just following a trend?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Self-help literature has been popular ever since the twenties -- Emil Coue was big stuff in the early twenties, Dorothea Brande's "Wake Up And Live" was one of the biggest books of 1936, and remained in print well into the sixties, Dale Carnegie's various books were best-sellers thru the thirties, forties, and fifties -- lots and lots of other authors followed their examples.

Self-help books targeted to women were especially common in the fifties -- and are the source of most of the "boy weren't those people ridiculous" quotes and photos that show up on modern snarky websites.

 

[JimWagner]

The Dale Carnegie books were the first thing to pop into my mind. I remember my parents having some of those around the house in the 50's.

 

[David Conwill]

Self-help books targeted to women were especially common in the fifties -- and are the source of most of the "boy weren't those people ridiculous" quotes and photos that show up on modern snarky websites.

Gosh but I am tired of those. It’s so easy to be cynical, but at least those folks seem like they were earnestly trying to make the world better, and not just smirking at its foibles.

-Dave

 

[LizzieMaine]

Gosh but I am tired of those. It’s so easy to be cynical, but at least those folks seem like they were earnestly trying to make the world better, and not just smirking at its foibles.

-Dave

People always mock and ridicule cultures they don't understand. Modern people are no different -- they just think they are.

The self-help literature of the day had a certain earnestness that might seem naive to people brought up in the modern mindset, but something like Coue's philosophy of "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better" still works if you let it.

 

[Chasseur]

No worries Lizzie and David, in about 10-20 years cultural historians will have a field day with the self-help books from the 1990s and 2000s. I was stuck in that section of Borders a few weeks ago, man there is a bunch of silly stuff out there....

I'm a fan of Esquire's series of self-help books from the 1940s-early 60s:
Esquire's Etiquette: A Guide for Business, Sports and Social Conduct, Esquire's Handbook for Hosts, Esquire's Guide to Keeping Fit: Or How the Successful Make Can Avoid Going to Seed, and What Every Young Man Should Know.

They are great reading and have actually been excellent help for me for etiquette, social skills and details. Yes there is some dated stuff that is amusing to read today (the Handbook for Hosts has some funny passages about "steeling the resolve of the man" to get him to enter the "forbidden zone" ie the kitchen and -- gasp -- cook something), but 70-80% is quite useful still today and it gives you an nice window into the period.

 

[jamespowers]

the Handbook for Hosts has some funny passages about "steeling the resolve of the man" to get him to enter the "forbidden zone" ie the kitchen and -- gasp -- cook something)

So that is who we have to blame.
I tend to have this reaction to many of the approaches to self-help today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlWddAXSRA

 

[Chasseur]

Damn thats funny James! Somehow I missed that one.

OFF Topic: The cooking thing reminds me of this South Asian market I used to go to in order to buy my supplies of making curry and other Indian food. The guys who ran it thought it was the richest thing they've ever seen a non-South Asian man coming in to buy stuff to cook. They felt pity for me, "That poor man who actually had to cook for himself, what a terrible wife he must have..." So everytime I came in they got the biggest smiles and sly looks at each other, "Oh here comes the curry cooker, he's cooking again."

 

[jamespowers]

Damn thats funny James! Somehow I missed that one.

OFF Topic: The cooking thing reminds me of this South Asian market I used to go to in order to buy my supplies of making curry and other Indian food. The guys who ran it thought it was the richest thing they've ever seen a non-South Asian man coming in to buy stuff to cook. They felt pity for me, "That poor man who actually had to cook for himself, what a terrible wife he must have..." So everytime I came in they got the biggest smiles and sly looks at each other, "Oh here comes the curry cooker, he's cooking again."

You have to cook for yourself?! Poor man. lol

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

As granddad used to say, the inability to cook is the leading cause of marriage!

 

[jamespowers]

As granddad used to say, the inability to cook is the leading cause of marriage!

Cook, wash or clean.