The Self-Made Man

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Auslandswissenschaft), course: Hauptseminar: "Who are the Americans? Politics, Business and Culture from New York to California", language: English, abstract: In the first part of this essay I will contemplate the historical development of theconcept of American individualism through the centuries, which created a contextualbackground for the establishment of a self-made man idea in the minds of Americans. Inaddition there will be given the biographical examples of self-made men that became apattern for all the successors in American history. Furthermore I would like to make anoverview of the various aspects of self-made man philosophy, which includes thediscussion of its positive and negative sides and its influences on personality and societyin general. Finally I will debate the ways of realisation of the self-made man ideanowadays and weigh the existing perspectives in the individualistic and contradictoryworld of now.