Hasidism Reappraised

How did the Hasidic (chasidish) movement begin?
First a few basics:
Chasidus means piousness. The new group was mocked by its opponents by being sarcastically called the pious ones.
The founder of Chasidus was Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. According to Wikipedia, he lived from 1698-1760.
Chasidim live throughout the world today. They are outwardly identifiable by their sidecurls (payos) long black coats (bekeshes) and fur hats (shtreimals) they wear on Shabbos and Yom Tov (the Sabbath and holidays.)
Lets return to our original question. How did they begin?
The following reasons have all been suggested by different historians and often fiercly debated.
Hasidism was a populist movement that was fueled by the masses. The scholarly elite had the economic and intellectual capability to study the Talmud. The poor ignorant masses had neither and felt ignored. Thus they went looking for a movement that emphasized the prayer of the common man over the Talmudic study of the scholar. This is the way chasidus was explained to me when I was a kid a sense it denigrates Chasidim since it describes them as poor ignoramuses. Who wants to be poor and ignorant?
Hasidism Reappraised, the book I recently bought, rejects the above explanation for chasidis’ rise. He argues that the facts show that the founders of chasidus often came from scholarly elite families themselves. Another book I once read, Men of Silk, (Chasidim wear silk on the Sabbath) points out that some of the earliest supporters of chasidus were rich Jews. Lets face it, a movement needs money to survive, especially when it had the opponents chasidus had.
Hasidism Reappraised makes another salient point. When chasidus started, the Lithuanian rabbinical establishment waged a campaign to wipe out the new movement. Hasidism Reappraised argues that it was the early anti Hasidic polemical tracts that served as the sources which subsequent historians relied upon to write chasidus’ history. No wonder the Chasidim came out looking ignorant and poor. Maybe they knew more than we have thought and were richer too.