Pull

“Laird offers an illuminating analysis of how exceptional achievers have combined individual talent with social assets…to rise in society.”—Hardy Green, Businessweek

“[A] highly readable appraisal of the social dynamics that navigate some Americans towards opportunity while steering others away—Pamela Laird has written an important book about the social forces that have blocked individual endeavour.”—Margaret Walsh, Business History

“Laird’s historical perspective yields fresh insights into the history of American business practices and offers an original perspective on the challenges made by feminism and civil rights in the last decades of the twentieth century.”—Kathy Peiss, Business History Review

“Laird provides a comprehensive perspective and rich historical insight into the importance of social dynamics in achieving career success. She retells the success stories of famous Americans ranging from Horatio Alger, Benjamin Franklin, and Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates and beyond to make the point that none were simply ‘self-made men.’”—T. Gutteridge, Choice

“This eye-opening book helps explains why so many individuals—and nearly all African Americans and women—were so long left out when they exhibited the same intelligence and ambition as those who ‘made it.’ In emphasizing the social forces that blocked pathways up, in addition to those which held people down, Laird presents an exciting new way to think about success.”—Walter A. Friedman, author of Birth of a Salesman

“A bold, ambitious, and important book. Laird shows that the key to understanding how people succeed is social capital—the networks, mentors, role models, manners, connections, and understanding of codes of behavior that enable some Americans but not others to advance.”—Daniel Horowitz, author of The Anxieties of Affluence