How to Win Friends and Influence People

 By Bruce Shawkey


How to Win Friends and Influence People is a self-help book, first published in 1936 and written by Dale Carnegie. Over 30 million copies have been sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

It went through 17 print editions in its first year of publishing and sold 250,000 copies in the first three months. Annually, it still sells in excess of 250,000 copies. A 2013 Library of Congress survey ranked Carnegie's book as the seventh most influential book in American history.

Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer, and the developer of courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. He was born November 24, 1888, Maryville, Missouri, and died November 1, 1955 at age 66.

I've never read the book myself, but have heard it referenced often. First editions of the book have sold for anywhere between $30 and $60. But you can read the book for free on the Internet Archive.

The book has been both praised and criticized. Proponents include:

Warren Buffet, Warren Buffett took the course when he was 20 years old, and to this day has the diploma in his office.

The book is said to have greatly influenced the life of television and film actress Donna Reed. It was given to her by her high school chemistry teacher Edward Tompkins to read as a sophomore at Denison (Iowa) High School in 1936. Upon reading it, she won the lead in the school play, was voted Campus Queen, and was in the top 10 of the 1938 graduating class.

A dubious honor goes to Charles Manson, who reportedly used what he learned from the book in prison to manipulate others into killing on his behalf.

During the 1998 kidnapping of LDS missionaries in Saratov, Russia, the kidnapped missionaries used strategies from the book in an attempt to gain leniency from their captors.

But the book has also been criticized. The satirical writer Sinclair Lewis waited a year to offer his scathing critique. He described Carnegie's method as teaching people to "smile and bob and pretend to be interested in other people's hobbies precisely so that you may screw things out of them."

A couple of sample pages from the Internet Archive are shown below.


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