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Article: Born Losers: A History of Failure in America.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- December 22, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Born Losers: A History of Failure in America. By Scott A. Sandage (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. x plus 362 pp. $35.00).
This long-anticipated, thought-provoking cultural history of failure in the United States deserves a punch-line beginning. Born Losers is a must read for anyone interested in American identity formation, the expansion of capitalism as political-economy and article of faith, the construction of economic striving as a moral imperative, and the psychological and social costs of a national ideology centered on self-reliance and economic ambition as the hallmarks of a successful life. Following the trail of the bankrupt entrepreneurs ...