One Simple Idea: How the Lessons of Positive Thinking Can Transform Your Life

The power of positive thinking. It is an idea deeply rooted in American culture, from Oprah to The Secret to the mass-media ministries of Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes. Yet no one has examined how this one simple idea—to think positively—has morphed from metaphysics into mass belief.

In One Simple Idea, Mitch Horowitz tracks the history of the positive-thinking movement from its pioneers to its most dramatic personalities, including Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale. Positive thinking has ...