Help Yourself to Some Neoliberalism? The Political Underpinnings of Self-Help Literature, 1978-2020

Abstract

While self-help literature is a typically American tradition, the political motivations behind the most important self-help books remain obscure. Recently, political commentators have argued that self-help books promote neoliberalism, condemning the books’ apparent self-centered nature. Building on Robert N. Bellah’s identifications of different strands of individualism in American society, it becomes clear that with respect to the politics of self-help classics between 1978-2020 there is a divide between two periods: 1978-2006 and 2008-2020. The most notable difference between the two periods is that during 1978-2006 self-help classics focused merely on individual solutions to individual and collective problems, whereas as from 2008 self-help classics added a collectivist approach to their reasoning.