Book Review

Just finished an excellent and interesting book: One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life by Mitch Horowitz. It's a history of the New Thought movement, from whence comes a lot of New Age thought, and everything from Christian Science to The Secret. The first seven chapters are an excellent history of a number of interlocking movements, including a number I was not familiar with, like Jewish Science, a rabbi's reaction to and interpretation of Christian Science. The last long chapter is entitled "Does it work?" and has an examination of under what circumstances positive thinking is useful, when it is not, and something of the ethics of this group of ideas. I recommend it to anyone interested in the whole idea of positive thinking or any related philosophies. The author doesn't refute anything so much as points out strengths and weaknesses and what is useful, and not, about these ideas.