The book Think and Grow Rich rose to popularity during the Great Depression of the 1930s, a period characterized by widespread economic devastation and personal hardship following a stock market crash that ricocheted through the US economy. The Great Depression is considered significant in history due to its impact on global economies and societies, and its widespread unemployment, poverty, and social unrest. People faced unprecedented challenges as they struggled to make ends meet and rebuild their lives in the face of economic collapse.

First published in 1937, the book offered hope for the financial ruin that gripped the nation. Ignoring the systemic issues that had led to the financial collapse, Napoleon Hill foregrounded personal responsibility as the methodical approach for individuals to surmount rampant unemployment, poverty, and despair, and achieve personal and financial success. Rooted in pseudo-scientific ideas about positive thinking and the subconscious power of the mind, the book claimed readers could overcome the challenges of the times via self-empowerment and mental practices that have persisted in subsequent literature of the genre, such as Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 book, The Secret.

Hill’s text was one of the century’s earliest examples of self-help literature, a genre that popularized the idea of personal improvement.