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Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Review: A Landmark Self-Help Classic, Thoroughly Revised
Originally published in 1937 and revised for the 21st century by Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D., Think and Grow Rich remains one of the most widely read and commercially successful personal development books ever produced, having sold 15 million copies worldwide and earning its reputation as the "Granddaddy of All Motivational Literature" — though modern readers will want to engage it with eyes open to both its enduring framework and its contested historical claims.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who want to understand the intellectual roots of the American self-help and motivational tradition — whether as true believers seeking a modernised entry point to Hill's 14 principles or as cultural historians tracing the lineage of a genre that has shaped generations of success coaches and practitioners.
Worth it if
You approach it as a foundational — and historically significant — primary source of the personal development genre, weighing its extraordinary multigenerational influence against the well-documented questions about its evidentiary claims.
Skip if
You are looking for an empirically grounded, rigorously sourced framework for wealth-building or professional development — the book's factual underpinnings do not survive modern historical scrutiny, and the revised edition does not revisit them.
What readers & critics say
Wikipedia notes that historians doubt Hill's foundational claim that Andrew Carnegie inspired his research, and that there are no known records of Hill meeting most of the famous figures he claimed to have interviewed — directly challenging the book's core authority. Bankers Anonymous places it in the top tier of the personal finance genre, describing it as a popular tonic written in the depths of the Depression, while acknowledging the contested circumstances surrounding Hill's alleged interviews under Carnegie's imprimatur.
Sources: Wikipedia, Bankers Anonymous4.8from 30,147 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
In This Review
- What Works & What Doesn't
- What the Book Actually Is and Contains
- Cultural Significance and Commercial Standing
- What the Revised Edition Does Well
- Documented Controversies and Genuine Limitations
- Who This Book Is For Today
What Works & What Doesn't
What Works
- Foundational text of the personal development genre, with documented sales of 15 million copies worldwide and extraordinary multigenerational influence
- Arthur R. Pell's revision bridges Hill's 1937 framework with contemporary figures such as Bill Gates and Mary Kay Ash, extending the book's relevance for modern readers
- Condenses Hill's longer 'Law of Success' philosophy into 14 accessible principles, structured as a step-by-step 'Philosophy of Achievement'
- Holds a 4.7-out-of-5-star rating at Barnes & Noble, reflecting a large and sustained reader base
- Ranked by BusinessWeek as the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after its original publication — a rare commercial feat in the genre
What Doesn't
- Historians have established that there are no known records of Hill meeting most of the famous figures he claimed to have interviewed, directly undermining the book's core evidentiary authority
- Hill's foundational claim — that Andrew Carnegie inspired his research — is doubted by historians, a fact the revised edition does not address
- Readers seeking empirically grounded, evidence-based guidance on wealth or professional development will find the framework's factual basis does not hold up to modern scrutiny
- The revision modernizes examples but leaves the book's contested historical claims and the mythology around Hill's own biography largely intact
A self-help landmark nearly nine decades in the making, this revised edition of Think and Grow Rich endures as the defining text of the personal development genre — and demands to be read with both appreciation for its influence and awareness of its documented controversies.
What the Book Actually Is and Contains
Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century (Think and Grow Rich Series) by Napoleon Hill front cover
First published in 1937 by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich is a personal development and self-improvement book built around what Hill called the "13 Steps to Riches" — a distilled "Philosophy of Achievement" drawn from his earlier, longer work The Law of Success. The book's central argument is that anyone can achieve success and wealth by following a specific set of principles, including cultivating a positive mental attitude and setting clear, specific goals. In the 1937 original, Hill grounded his case in the stories of figures such as Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. The Tarcher revised edition, updated by Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D. — described by the publisher as a nationally known author, lecturer, and consultant in human resources management — weaves in accounts of later figures such as Bill Gates, Mary Kay Ash, Dave Thomas, and Sir John Templeton to extend Hill's framework into contemporary context. Rosa Lee Beeland, Hill's third wife, contributed substantially to the authoring and editing of the original 1937 work, a fact that has only received fuller acknowledgment in recent scholarship.
Cultural Significance and Commercial Standing
Few books in the self-help canon can claim the reach of Think and Grow Rich. Having sold 15 million copies worldwide, it set the standard for motivational thinking that followed in its wake, and BusinessWeek magazine's Best-Seller List ranked it the sixth best-selling paperback business book a full 70 years after its original publication. Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World, is on record stating: "During the past twenty-five years I have been blessed with more good fortune than any individual deserves but I shudder to think where I'd be today, or what I'd be doing if I had not been exposed to Napoleon Hill's philosophy. It changed my life." That kind of testimonial, stretching across generations of readers and practitioners, speaks to the book's unusual staying power in a genre crowded with short-lived titles. At Barnes & Noble, the book holds a 4.7-out-of-5-star rating, reflecting its broad and enduring reader base.
What the Revised Edition Does Well
The core strength of this revised edition lies in its structural accessibility. Pell's updates translate Hill's 14 principles into a format designed to speak to readers encountering the material for the first time in a modern context, pairing Depression-era anecdotes with examples from the late 20th century's best-known entrepreneurs. The publisher positions the revision explicitly as an effort to make Hill's philosophy relevant to the 21st century without dismantling its foundational architecture. For readers who want the original's framework — the emphasis on desire, faith, auto-suggestion, specialized knowledge, imagination, and organized planning — alongside contemporary illustrations of those ideas, this edition is structured to deliver both in a single volume.
Documented Controversies and Genuine Limitations
No honest assessment of this book can ignore what historians and researchers have established about its foundational claims. According to Wikipedia, there are no known records of Hill meeting the famous men he claimed to have interviewed extensively — with the exception of a brief encounter with Thomas Edison. Historians also doubt Hill's central claim that Andrew Carnegie inspired him to undertake the research behind the book. These are not minor editorial quibbles: the entire framework rests on the authority of those alleged relationships. Readers who approach the book as a documented account of interviews with Carnegie and the industrial titans of the era will find that authority contested by the historical record. Additionally, the circumstances of the book's creation — including details of Hill's personal life documented in Wikipedia's account — complicate the mythology the author built around himself. The revised edition updates the examples but does not substantially revisit these foundational questions.
Who This Book Is For Today
Think and Grow Rich occupies an unusual position: it is both a historical artifact of Depression-era optimism and a living text that millions of readers continue to treat as a practical guide. Readers drawn to the lineage of American motivational literature — those who want to understand where figures like Mandino, Tony Robbins, and a generation of success coaches drew their intellectual water — will find this edition an indispensable primary source. Readers seeking rigorously sourced, evidence-based frameworks for wealth-building or professional development will find the book's empirical underpinnings thin by contemporary standards. For those already committed to the mindset tradition Hill helped create, the Pell revision offers a convenient, modernized entry point to the original philosophy. For skeptics, it remains essential reading precisely because its influence on the genre has been so thoroughly documented.
Frequently Asked Questions
is Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised by Napoleon Hill worth reading
It depends on what you're looking for. If you want to understand where modern motivational culture — from Og Mandino to Tony Robbins — actually came from, the review calls this edition 'an indispensable primary source.' But if you need rigorously sourced, evidence-based advice, the reviewer is upfront that the book's empirical underpinnings are 'thin by contemporary standards.'
What is this book actually about
At its core it lays out Hill's '13 Steps to Riches' — a 'Philosophy of Achievement' built around principles like desire, faith, auto-suggestion, specialized knowledge, imagination, and organized planning. The Tarcher revised edition, updated by Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D., keeps that original framework intact while swapping some of Hill's Depression-era anecdotes for examples drawn from figures like Bill Gates, Mary Kay Ash, Dave Thomas, and Sir John Templeton.
Did napoleon hill actually interview andrew carnegie and the other famous people in this book
This is a genuine and documented controversy the review doesn't sidestep. According to the reviewer, historians have found no known records of Hill meeting the famous men he claimed to have interviewed extensively — the one possible exception being a brief encounter with Thomas Edison — and historians also doubt his central claim that Andrew Carnegie inspired the book's research. The revised edition updates the examples but doesn't revisit these foundational questions.
Is the revised edition of this book better than the original
The revision by Arthur R. Pell, Ph.D. is designed to make Hill's framework more accessible to modern readers by pairing the original Depression-era anecdotes with 20th-century entrepreneur stories, not to overhaul the book's philosophy. The reviewer notes the publisher explicitly positioned it as modernizing without 'dismantling its foundational architecture,' so readers who want significant updates to Hill's contested historical claims won't find them here.
Does this book actually work
Millions of readers say it changed their lives — Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World, stated he 'shudders to think' where he'd be without Hill's philosophy, and the book holds a 4.7-out-of-5-star rating at Barnes & Noble. The reviewer's honest caveat is that its principles rest on mindset and mental attitude rather than empirical evidence, so whether it 'works' depends heavily on whether you're already open to that tradition.
Is this book good for beginners to self-help
The reviewer describes it as the 'Granddaddy of All Motivational Literature,' which makes it both a natural starting point and essential historical context for anyone entering the self-help genre. Pell's revision is specifically structured to speak to first-time readers of the material in a modern context, though newcomers should go in knowing the book's foundational historical claims are contested.
Is this book similar to The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
They're closely linked by influence rather than by style — Og Mandino himself credited Hill's philosophy as the turning point in his life, and the reviewer cites Mandino as one of the generation of success writers who 'drew their intellectual water' from Hill. Think and Grow Rich is the older, more structural framework-driven text, while Mandino's work is a parable-style narrative, but both sit firmly in the American motivational tradition Hill helped define.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
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- 2
penguinrandomhouse.com
- 3
en.wikipedia.org
- Further reading
- 4
Napoleon Hill, Wikipedia
- 5
bankers-anonymous.com
- 6
- 7
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