Samuel Smiles 
Self-Help 

First published in 1859, ‘Self-Help’ was the first book by reformist Scottish journalist Samuel Smiles and it is considered his masterpiece.



‘Self-Help’ promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and
laissez-faire government. A bestseller immediately after its publication, ‘Self-Help’ propelled its author to fame and rapidly became one of Victorian Britain’s most important statements on the allied virtues of hard work, thrift, and perseverance, being called ‘
the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism’.