The Making of the Self-Made Man ❧ Current Affairs

How America came to worship the men who style themselves as heroic entrepreneurs and innovators in the mold of Thomas Edison.

The Making of the Self-Made Man Originally published in our magazine’s hallowed print edition 2022 Jan/Feb Details How America came to worship the men who style themselves as heroic entrepreneurs and innovators in the mold of Thomas Edison. Tara Isabella Burton filed 30 March 2022 in History Few men embody the late nineteenth century’s particular blend of technological optimism and vitalist mysticism quite like the American inventor Thomas Alva Edison. “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” as the papers termed him (rival monikers included the “Jersey Columbus” and “The Napoleon of Science”), Edison was

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