It is true, that but for him who borrows, and risks, and labors, the world would hardly move forward. It is equally true, that if there were no borrowers, there would be no profit to the lenders. Being so essential to each other, both are essential to the world's progress. But the world would be happier if he who borrowed did so more carefully; realized his danger more acutely, and risked less for his own sake, as well as for the sake of him who lends.-from "The Elements of Success"The diverse career of Canadian-American businessman and journalist ERASTUS WIMAN (1834-1904) encompassed a stint as a reporter for the newspaper the Toronto Globe, the presidency Canada's Great Northwestern telegraph company and later of the Staten Island Rapid Transit railroad, and a successful campaign to eliminate imprisonment for debtors in New York State. In 1893, he shared the fruits of his long, wide experience in this collection of essays on business, society, and living a successful life.In a charmingly rambling style, Wiman steps forward as an advocate for such assorted issues as a close commercial union between Canada and the United States, and the arrival of women into the white-collar workplace. He discusses everything from the dramatic influence of electricity on industry and the power of the housing market to transform an economy to the business lessons to be learned from Buffalo Bill to man's place as a parasite of the cow. An extraordinary work by a uniquely influential and knowledgeable character, this is full of surprising and delightful insight.

From the introduction: "Tradition has it that every American child receives, as part of his birthright, the freedom to mold his own life. . . . However inaccurate as a description of American society, the success myth reflects what millions believe that society is or ought to be. The degree to which opportunity has or has not been available in our society is a subject for empirical investigation. It rests within the realm of verifiable fact. The belief that opportunity exists for all is a subject for intellectual analysis and rests within the realm of ideology. This latter dimension of the success myth is the primary focus of this book."

Emerging from the Revolutionary War and the formation of a new nation, Staten Island was poised to enter the nineteenth century ripe for growth and prosperity. Fueled by waves of immigration, Richmond County became a boomtown of industry and transportation. Piloting his first ferry with just two small masts and eighteen-cent fares, Cornelius Vanderbilt built a transit empire from his native shores of Staten Island. When the Civil War erupted, Richmond played a key role in housing and training Union troops as 125 naval guns protected New York Harbor at the Narrows. At the close of the century, Staten Island was swept up in the politics of consolidation, with 84 percent of locals voting to join Greater New York, yet the promised benefits of a new mega-city never materialized. Author Joe Borelli charts the trials and triumphs of Staten Island in the nineteenth century.

In late nineteenth-century America, a new type of book became commonplace in millions of homes across the country. Volumes sporting such titles as The Way to Win and Onward to Fame and Fortune promised to show young men how to succeed in life. But despite their upbeat titles, success manuals offered neither practical business advice nor a simple celebration of the American Dream. Instead, as Judy Hilkey reveals, they presented a dire picture of an uncertain new age, portraying life in the newly industrialized nation as a brutal struggle for survival, but arguing that adherence to old-fashioned virtues enabled any determined man to succeed. Hilkey offers a cultural history of success manuals and the industry that produced and marketed them. She examines the books' appearance, iconography, and intended audience--primarily native-born, rural and small-town men of modest means and education--and explores the genre's use of gendered language to equate manhood with success, femininity with failure. Ultimately, argues Hilkey, by articulating a worldview that helped legitimate the new social order to those most threatened by it, success manuals urged readers to accommodate themselves to the demands of life in the industrial age.