About Samuel Smiles
Samuel Smiles was a British author and government reformer. He campaigned on a Chartist platform and argued that progress would come more from new attitudes than new laws. His main work, Self‑Help (1859), promoted thrift, blamed poverty on irresponsible habits, and attacked materialism and laissez‑faire government. It has been called the “bible of mid‑Victorian liberalism” and influenced British political thought for years.
