Bootstrapping - Playful 19th and 20th century writers

Collection by R G

18 Pins • 56 Followers PinsFollowers

Can you pull yourself up by your shoelaces? Bootstraps were the shoelaces of the mid 1800s and describing someone as trying to pull themselves up by them was a snide insult or comic expression of someone stupidly trying to do something impossible that would backfire and cause the opposite effect. As you can see here, writers had quite a bit of fun with it. Perhaps our peers who insist that the disadvantaged can 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps' also deserve this antique comic criticism.