No New Ideas: Exploring the Roots of Self-Help to Better Help Yourself
About this audiobook
Discover a new understanding of self-help and a better means to help yourself through the surprising histories behind some of society’s best ideas for living well.
Trying to become a better person, husband, and father, Matthew Israel always found the latest self-help trends captivating—but his experience as a historian led him to question the hype. Diving into the fascinating histories behind nine of the most well-known self-help ideas in American culture today—such as practicing gratitude, cultivating joy, and exercise as therapy—Israel guides readers through a wide range of wisdom, from ancient philosophy to Buddhism, Christianity, psychology, and twentieth-century Black and feminist thought. The result is a compelling case that our “new” ideas can be much more trustworthy when understood in their historical context.
The book is rich in takeaways we can all apply to our lives, including these nine best ideas for living well:
- Exercise for your mind
- Question productivity
- Practice gratitude
- Incorporate death reminders
- Simplify your life
- Explore Buddhism
- Read philosophy
- Find community and celebrate
- Practice
Discover more
About the author
Matthew Israel is a PhD historian of art and culture, writer, and curator based in New York. For over two decades, he has worked in and written about the contemporary art world. He helped build Artsy (Artsy.net); he was the head curator on Meta’s Open Arts team; and he is the author of three previous books on modern and contemporary art history: Kill for Peace: American Artists Against the Vietnam War (2013), The Big Picture: Contemporary Art in 10 Works by 10 Artists (2017), and A Year in the Art World: An Insider’s View (2020). No New Ideas is Matthew’s first book on self-help and the result of over a decade of trying to help himself with the genre. Matthew currently works as a consultant for art organizations, more broadly as a well-being consultant, and teaches at New York University’s Graduate Program in Museum Studies.
