Sink or Swim Katherine A. Sprang About the Author: Dr Nicholas

About the Author: Dr Nicholas Campion is Principal Lecturer in History and Director of the Sophia Centre at Bath Spa University

refreshing

with wings

is not the essential element

and systemic understandings of stress

Sink or Swim Katherine A. Sprang About the Author: Dr NicholasPeople living in the nineteenth century United States saw shocking upheavals in both the economy and in ideas of selfhood in a commercial society. Narratives such as Horatio Alger's rags to riches tales allured Americans with visions of financial success, while events such as the Panics of 8 9, 837, 857, and 8 5 threatened them with sudden and devastating financial failure. The antebellum period's "go ahead" ethos encouraged individuals to form an