Smiles, Samuel. The Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland; with an Appendix relating to The Huguenots in America. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1867. First Edition. [10621]
Green publisher's cloth, spine decorated in gilt, binding very good and clean, 8 x 5 1/2 inches. 448 clean pp. with index, tight. Very good. Hardcover.
"It is the object of the following book more particularly to give an account of the causes which led to this last great migration of foreign Protestants from France into England, and to describe its effects on English industry as well as English history." - Preface.
Smiles relates the history of the Reformation in France, the rise of the Huguenots, their persecutions and flight to England, the their effect on the country after their arrival and settlement. He includes biographical notices of many of the men and families who emigrated to England. The final chapter on Huguenots in America (pp. 427-442) is written by Hon. Gabriel Poillon Disosway of Staten Island, the editor of this American edition.
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), b. Haddington, Scotland; d. London, England. Smiles is best-known for his series of Self-Help books (Self-Help, 1859; Character, 1871; Thrift, 1875, and Duty, 1889) that "enshrined the basic Victorian values associated with the 'gospel of work.'" - Britannica online.
His father died when Samuel was in his 20th year, leaving behind a family of eleven children; Samuel learned the value of self-reliance and it was embodied in this series of books. Smiles' interest in how things work, the practicality of industry, led to his interest in writing about inventors, business leaders, and successful businesses. His career as a journalist and author included the editorship of the progressive Leeds Times, the life of the railroad inventor George Stephenson, Lives of the Engineers in three volumes, a study of economic history, a series on the lives of inventors, two books on the Huguenots, and the biographies of several naturalists, engineers, poets, etc.
