Ragged Dick and Risen from the Ranks
In Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger’s most successful book, Alger codified the basic formula he would follow in nearly a hundred subsequent novels for boys: a young hero, inexperienced in the temptations of the city but morally armed to resist them, is unexpectedly forced to earn a livelihood. The hero’s exemplary struggle—to retain his virtue, to…
Horatio Alger and the Myth of Social Mobility
“Americans vastly overestimate the likelihood of moving up the economic ladder,” Jeff Guo posits in his January 18 article for the Washington Post in which he discusses the myths and reality of social mobility in America. Drawing from Gary Scharnhorst’s introduction to Broadview’s forthcoming edition of Horatio Alger’s social mobility novel, Ragged Dick, Guo draws…
Herland and Related Writings
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s provocative utopian novel Herland, first published in 1915, tells its story through the observations of three male explorers who discover a land inhabited solely by women; the women reproduce through parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction). Initially skeptical, the explorers come to realize that Herland has evolved into an ideal, cooperative, matriarchal society—fertile, peaceful, and…