Born Losers

A History of Failure in America

Scott A. Sandage

  • 2003 Thomas J. Wilson Prize of Harvard University Press

List of Illustrations

Prologue: Lives of Quiet Desperation

1. Going Bust in the Age of Go-Ahead

2. A Reason in the Man

3. We Are All Speculators

4. Central Intelligence Agency, since 1841

5. The Big Red Book of Third-Rate Men

6. Misinformation and Its Discontents

7. The War for Ambition

8. Big Business and Little Men

Epilogue: Attention Must Be Paid

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

  • Cover: Born Losers
  • A photo of the author

Photo by Gregory Cherpes ©2004

Scott A. Sandage is Associate Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University.