First published in 1859, "Self-Help" was the first book by reformist Scottish journalist Samuel Smiles and it is considered his masterpiece.

"Self-Help" promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. A bestseller immediately after its publication, "Self-Help" propelled its author to fame and rapidly became one of Victorian Britain's most important statements on the allied virtues of hard work, thrift, and perseverance, being called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism".