The Reality of the Self-Made Man

24 Historically Speaking · May/June 2007 The Reality of the Self-Made Man Wyatt WeUs In the popular mind, the rise of "self-made" men from modest beginnings to wealth and prominence proves that the United States is indeed a land of opportunity. Critics point out that, historically, the United States has denied opportunities to African-Americans and other groups, and that parents' wealth and status have always affected children's success more than anything else. Nevertheless, the American experience abounds with successful men from modest beginnings, and every community has at least a few. The self-made man is not typical, but neither is he particular rare. Yet this raises another question: does the ascent of these men simply reflect talent and luck, or is a more subtle, systematic process at work? Americans define the self-made man subjectively. As Booker T Washington put it, "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome." The career path defines the self-made man, not a specific level of achievement. As with any ideal type, however, the self-made man is best understood through exemplars . Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, John D. Rockefeller , Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, E.H. Harriman, Henry Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton , and Washington himself all qualify as outstanding examples of the self-made man, rising from modest beginnings to spectacular heights. These twelve enjoyed varied careers in business, politics, and other areas, and their biographies contain common threads that suggest broader conclusions about the type. At first glance, their origins seem diverse. Washington, born a slave a few years before emancipation , endured grinding poverty as a boy. Andrew Carnegie started work in a textile mill at twelve to help support his family. In contrast, Harriman and Frick came from impecunious branches of well-to-do families. Although none of these men inherited riches, only a few grew up in poverty. Yet they all shared insecurity. Harriman and Frick avoided poverty largely because of relatives' generosity ; Jackson was an orphan; and Hamilton, Rockefeller, Reagan, and Clinton grew up in families desperately clinging to the middle class. None could be sure of their social or economic position. In every case, these men had difficult or nonexistent relationships with their fathers. Jackson's and Clinton's fathers died before they were born, and Washington knew nothing of his father, a white man. Reagan's father and Clinton's stepfather were alcoholics who had trouble holding jobs. Hamilton 's, Carnegie's, Harriman's, and Frick's fathers Booker T. Washington speaking in Lakeland, Florida, ca. 1890. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-1 20526]. were all failures at their chosen professions (merchant , craftsman, clergyman, and farmer, respectively ). Rockefeller's father was a bigamist and a con man who apparentiy regarded everyone as a mark, even his own children. The cases of Franklin, Lincoln , and Ford are particularly instructive. Their fathers were moderately successful, Franklin's as a craftsman and Lincoln's and Ford's as farmers. Yet all three rejected their fathers. Franklin ran away from home at the age of seventeen, rebelling as much against the older brother to whom he was apprenticed as his father, and both Lincoln and Ford despised rural life and abandoned it as soon as they could. Lincoln seems to have genuinely loathed his father, refusing even to visit his deathbed. Fathers usually introduce their sons to the world of affairs, and, as a rule, boys take their social positions and, often, their professions from their fathers. For various reasons, however, these self-made men all separated from their fathers at an early age. Lacking or rejecting paternal guidance, they found new places in society by cultivating powerful patrons and establishing ties with other ambitious young men. Benjamin Franklin relendessly pursued the favor of colonial Philadelphia's small elite and made himself the leader of the city's upwardly mobile youth. Hamilton relied on a series of patrons, most notably George Washington. Jackson's early prosperity depended heavily on his alliances with the Blounts, Tennessee's leading politicians, and...