Self-help Book
'Self-help books' are books written with the intention to instruct readers on a number of personal problems. They take their name from Self-Help, the Victorian best-seller, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help. They moved from a niche position to being a postmodern cultural phenomenon in the late twentieth century - a period marked out by 'the burgeoning literature of self-improvement...that expanded dramatically in the last quarter of the twentieth century, particularly in its final decade'.
Read more about Self-help Book: Early History, The Postmodern Phenomenon, Behind The Self-help Book Explosion, Characteristics, Fictional Analogues, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words self-help and/or book:
“The American people are doing their job today. They should be given a chance to show whether they wish to preserve the principles of individual and local responsibility and mutual self-help before they embark on what I believe to be a disastrous system. I feel sure they will succeed if given the opportunity.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon—destroying ignorance, poverty and despair before they can destroy us. A nation that doesn’t read much doesn’t know much. And a nation that doesn’t know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box and the voting booth...The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns.”
—Jim Trelease (20th century)