plutarch of modern america because of his books on walt disney, his book on hugh hefner, which he talked about here in the library, and henry ford and now dale carnegie. he's a professor of history and of the history department. dale carnegie i have a lecture i gave periodically. people forget that i've given it before and then i get it. [laughter] in which the title of it is the center of the literary universe. we talk about t.s. eliot and mark twain, talk about things people don't know, the best-selling cookbook of all times of course written in st. louis. i always like to refer to the first sentence of the first edition of the greatest sentence in american literature: code stand facing a stove. [laughter] but as a part of the lecture i always tell people that one of the greatest self-help books ever written was written by a missourian who always identified himself come as you read a steven watts's excellent biography you will always find out identifies him as a missourian and that is dale carnegie born in a small town in northwest missouri and has built an increasingly not so small to

ever since rob was broke but the thing for a book about plutarch i've been giving my booktalk addressed in a toga. but i decided my legs weren't good enough for got the suit instead tonight. i do want to talk about in the book about dale carnegie to see who is i think a very influential cultural figure in this country for reasons that hope for reasons that help to layout a little bit in my talk, and if you're kind enough to get the book i would be happy to sign it for you afterwards. the notion of success i think lay at the heart of the american dream. and, in fact, the idea of the individual living head in the race of life, pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps as the old of them are saying, i think it's embedded in our national dna. all of us avert i think some version of go make something of yourself, go make something out of yourself. usually from anxious parents during our adolescence when we prepared to go off to college. and actually i think from the founding days of the republic, boosters and moralists, politicians and shysters, although i risk redundancy on those last two

steven watts has been called i a another good biographer, a biographer of john dewey, the plutarch ofmodern america because of his books on walt disney, whose book on hugh hefner which he talked about here in the library, and henry ford, and now dale carnegie. he is a professor of history at the university of missouri, former chair of the history department at the university, and dale carnegie, i have a lecture that make it periodically able to get have and people forget i've given it before and then i give it in which the title of it is missouri, the center of the literary universe. we talk about t.s. eliot and mark twain, talk about things that people don't know, the best selling cookbook of all times, written in st. louis. i was like to refer to the first sentence of the first edition as the criticisms in american literature, stand facing the