One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life

Mitch Horowitz is a historian of alternative spirituality, and this Crown book is his documented history of New Thought and its positive thinking and manifestation techniques, tracing the movement from its nineteenth century origins into contemporary self help culture. Its strength is that Horowitz writes sympathetically toward the movement while still grounding the account in documented sources and named historical figures, rather than presenting positive thinking's claims as established fact. Its limit is the reason for its tier two placement: it is popular history aimed at a general readership rather than a peer reviewed academic study, so a claim needing rigorous scholarly analysis of New Thought's specific historical claims should be checked against academic religious studies scholarship alongside this readable survey.