ANEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER
Americans are a positive people -- cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: This is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive is the key to getting success and prosperity. Or so we are told.
In this utterly original debunking, Barbara Ehrenreich confronts the false promises of positive thinking and shows its reach into every corner of American life, from Evangelical megachurches to the medical establishment, and, worst of all, to the business community, where the refusal to consider negative outcomes--like mortgage defaults--contributed directly to the current economic disaster. With the myth-busting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of positive thinking: personal self-blame and national denial. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best--poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.
Barbara Ehrenreichis the bestselling author of many books, including
Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch, Bright-sided, This Land Is Their Land, Dancing In The Streetsand
Blood Rites. A frequent contributor to
Harper's and
The Nation, she has also been a columnist at
The New York Timesand
Timemagazine.A sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism.
Deeply satisfying. . . I have waited my whole life for someone to write a book likeBright-sided. The New York Times Book Review
A brilliant expos? of our smiley-faced culture. Forbes.com
Insightful, smart, and witty. . . Ehrenreich makes important points about what happens to those who dare to warn of the worst. BusinessWeek
Ehrenreich's examination of the history of positive thinking is a tour de force of well-tempered snark, culminating in a persuasive indictment of the brigl#S
![Bright-sided How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/3/5/6/2_426920.jpg)