A History of the New Thought Movement" is an important study of the mental healing movement, by Horatio W. Dresser, an authoritative writer who knows his subject from the heart of it.
In addition to being extremely well written this book on the origins and development of the new thought movement is also very comprehensive. It deals with the various leaders that emerged and their particular perpectives on truth as well as the unfolding of the different paths of thought that created the separate centers of expression across the United States and around the world. It is very enlightening to read the chapters on the First Organizations and the First Conventions. These chapters introduce to us not only some of the prominent teachers and speakers of the time but their genuine desire to lift mankind into a higher concept of himself and his relationship to God. They come from different angles but the goal is the same. That goal is stated clearly in the chapter on The International New Thought Alliance meeting in 1916 "To teach the infinitude of the Supreme One, and the divinity of man and his infinite possiblities through the creative power of constructive thinking and obedience to voice of the indwelling presence which is our source of Inspiration, Power, Health and Prosperity".