Each Mind a Kingdom
American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875-1920
$24.95, £14.95 paperback
978-0-520-22927-3
Available Now
394 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 4 charts, 17 figures
August 1999, Available worldwide
Categories: History; American Studies; Women's Studies; United States History; Religion
August 1999, Available worldwide
Categories: History; American Studies; Women's Studies; United States History; Religion
"Ambitious, engaging and beautifully written, this study of late-19th-century American women's psychological and intellectual relationship to progressive social movements and quasi-religious self-improvement cults is a groundbreaking investigation that overturns established paradigms in which women are buffeted by history rather than agents of it."—Publishers Weekly
"This book is a fresh and richly textured study, a must-read for scholars of American culture at the turn of the twentieth century."—Richard Weiss, Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences
"If this book were just a history of the New Thought movement, an eclectic and understudied collection of predominantly female healers and social reformers, it would be a welcome contribution to historical literature; however, the juxtapositions in the subtitle are the heart of its ambitious and complex argument. . . . Satter's attention to gendered language in New Thought seems long overdue, and her analysis of its ambiguous and slippery discourse is genuinely compelling."—Margaret Bendroth, American Historical Review
"[Satter] maps the evolution of mind cure and its internecine rivalries with far more detail than any of her predecessors; she provides a sophisticated critical reading of the New Thought novels . . .. that elucidates female ambivalence with respect to love, desire, service, and selfhood; and she consistently interprets developments within New Thought theology in terms of a rich historical context. . . . . Satter argues convincingly that, if postmodern theorists contend that gender and subjectivity are socially constructed rather than innate, then the self-help advice of New Thought writers a century ago and of New Age writers in our own era can help us understand the processes by which gendered selfhood continually has been renegotiated."—Leslie Fishbein, Journal of American History
"A superbly researched and organized study that will provoke the general reader to new thinking, and offer valuable assistance to future scholars."—Gillian Gill, Women's Review of Books
"As with many other insights woven into this impressive history, Satter makes her point with subtlety and lets her rich cast of resurrected characters speak for itself."—Hans Johnson, Washington Post
"This book is a fresh and richly textured study, a must-read for scholars of American culture at the turn of the twentieth century."—Richard Weiss, Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences
"If this book were just a history of the New Thought movement, an eclectic and understudied collection of predominantly female healers and social reformers, it would be a welcome contribution to historical literature; however, the juxtapositions in the subtitle are the heart of its ambitious and complex argument. . . . Satter's attention to gendered language in New Thought seems long overdue, and her analysis of its ambiguous and slippery discourse is genuinely compelling."—Margaret Bendroth, American Historical Review
"[Satter] maps the evolution of mind cure and its internecine rivalries with far more detail than any of her predecessors; she provides a sophisticated critical reading of the New Thought novels . . .. that elucidates female ambivalence with respect to love, desire, service, and selfhood; and she consistently interprets developments within New Thought theology in terms of a rich historical context. . . . . Satter argues convincingly that, if postmodern theorists contend that gender and subjectivity are socially constructed rather than innate, then the self-help advice of New Thought writers a century ago and of New Age writers in our own era can help us understand the processes by which gendered selfhood continually has been renegotiated."—Leslie Fishbein, Journal of American History
"A superbly researched and organized study that will provoke the general reader to new thinking, and offer valuable assistance to future scholars."—Gillian Gill, Women's Review of Books
"As with many other insights woven into this impressive history, Satter makes her point with subtlety and lets her rich cast of resurrected characters speak for itself."—Hans Johnson, Washington Post
"Firmly grounded in social history, Satter's work reanimates a set of ideas that have been largely lost from view and demonstrates both their historical efficacy and their centrality to an understanding of the cultural and social transformations of the turn of the century."—Amy Schrager Lang, author of Prophetic Women
The New Thought Movement was an enormously popular late nineteenth-century spiritual movement led largely by and for women. Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science is but one example of the fascinating range of these groups, which advocated a belief in mind over matter and espoused women's spiritual ability to purify the world. This work is the first to uncover the cultural implications of New Thought, embedding it in the intellectual traditions of nineteenth-century America, and illuminating its connections with the self-help and New Age enthusiasms of our own fin-de-siècle.
Beryl Satter examines New Thought in all its complexity, presenting along the way a captivating cast of characters. In lively and accessible prose, she introduces the people, the institutions, the texts, and the ideas that comprised the New Thought movement. This fascinating social and intellectual history explores the complex relationships among social reform, alternative religion, medicine, and psychology which persist to this day.
Beryl Satter examines New Thought in all its complexity, presenting along the way a captivating cast of characters. In lively and accessible prose, she introduces the people, the institutions, the texts, and the ideas that comprised the New Thought movement. This fascinating social and intellectual history explores the complex relationships among social reform, alternative religion, medicine, and psychology which persist to this day.