Dale Carnegie - Success Merchant of the 1930’s
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) was an American writer who published “How to Win Friends and Influence People” in the late 1930s during the aftermath of the Depression. According to Deloshon and Potter (1982), Carnegie’s 1937 book stated that “training is rooted in learning by doing” and “based on self-assuredness and acceptance of oneself as a person of worth who can achieve desired goals through greater understanding of oneself” (p. 23). An early proponent of the responsibility assumption, his book identified that it is possible to change other people’s behavior by changing one’s reaction to them. Carnegie’s concepts are based on the Gestalt school and autosuggestion.
I remember growing up and seeing “How to Win Friends and Influence People” on my Dad’s bookshelf in the early 1960’s. When I asked him what it was about he described how his role as a manager was to get work done through other people and this book helped him to do this more effectively.
It is interesting how some of Dale Carnegie’s principles are applicable some 70 years later as core principles of organizations, as as the values and approaches of coaching.
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Comment by Christine Heinrichs on 17 May 2008:
This subject fits well with the wonderful biography of Franklin Roosevelt that aired on PBS this past week. I’m attuned to that time period and can see how his ideas and methods grew out of the times. FRD must have been an inspiration to him!
Comment by Vikki G. Brock on 24 May 2008:
Christine, great addition. I saw part of that biography on PBS and did not make the link until I read your comment. Thanks, Vikki