Decades before Oprah, Dr. Phil, and today’s innumerable gurus peddling surefire plans for bettering ourselves, Missourian Dale Carnegie started the self-help revolution with his worldwide best seller How to Win Friends and Influence People. Life magazine named Carnegie one of its “100 most important Americans of the 20th Century.” In a discussion of the first full-scale biography of this influential figure, University of Missouri history professor Steven Watts traces Carnegie’s life from rural poverty to international acclaim and examines his lingering influence.

Watch at c-span.org