It has been estimated that Americans spend eleven billion dollars on self-help books in their quest to more fully understand themselves and the world. Jessica Weisberg, an award-winning writer and producer, has taken on the challenge of charting some of the wit and wisdom of advice givers from colonial times to the present era.
Weisberg makes the point that many of these women and men not only offered counsel on personal matters but also became authorities on cultural matters, values and character, and openness to change. Over the years, women have thrived as advice columnists who provide responses to the manifold ways Americans work, date, handle stress, parent, deal with money, and square off against death. Their popularity is aided by the public's fascination with reading about other people's troubles, their sexual escapades, fantasies, and foibles. It's comforting in a way to know that others struggle to stay in control in a world that is always changing.
Weisberg focuses our attention on 16 advice givers in sections on "Old, Wise Men" (John Dunton, Lord Chesterfield, Benjamin Franklin, William Alcott); "As a Friend" (Dorothy Dix, Dale Carnegie, Dear Abby and Ann Landers, Mildred Newman); "Experts Among Us" (Sylvia Porter, Benjamin Spock, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Joan Quigley); and "Advice for All, by All" (Harville Hendrix and Helen Hunt, Judith Martin, Martha Beck, Michael King).
