Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Description: Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of Americas penchant for positive thinking. On a personal level, it leads to self-blame; on a national level, its ushered in an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Barbara Ehrenreichs New York Times bestselling Bright-sided is a sharp-witted knockdown of Americas love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism 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. Author Biography Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) was a bestselling author and political activist, whose more than a dozen books included Nickel and Dimed, which the New York Times described as "a classic in social justice literature", Bait and Switch, Bright-sided, This Land Is Their Land, Dancing In The Streets, and Blood Rites. An award-winning journalist, she frequently contributed to Harpers, The Nation, The New York Times, and TIME magazine. Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, when it was still a bustling mining town. She studied physics at Reed College, and earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rockefeller University. Rather than going into laboratory work, she got involved in activism, and soon devoted herself to writing her innovative journalism. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Smile or Die: The Bright Side of Cancer 15 The Years of Magical Thinking 45 The Dark Roots of American Optimism 74 Motivating Business and the Business of Motivation 97 God Wants You to Be Rich 123 Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness 147 How Positive Thinking Destroyed the Economy 177 Postscript on Post- Positive Thinking 195 Notes 207 Acknowledgments 223 Index 227 Review "Deeply satisfying. . . I have waited my whole life for someone to write a book like Bright-sided." --The New York Times Book Review "A brilliant exposé 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 "Ehrenreichs examination of the history of positive thinking is a tour de force of well-tempered snark, culminating in a persuasive indictment of the bright-siders as the culprits in our current financial mess." --The Washington Post "Bright-sided scours away the veneer of conventional wisdom with pointed writings and reporting. . . . Helping us face the truth is Ehrenreich at her best." --The Miami Herald "Contrarians rejoice! With a refreshingly caustic tone, Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the relentlessly upbeat attitude many Americans demand of themselves, and more damagingly, of others." --USA Today "A rousing endorsement of skepticism, realism, and critical thinking." --San Francisco Bay Guardian "Ehrenreich delivers her indictments of the happiness industry with both authority and wit. . . . Bright-sided offers both a welcome tonic and a call to action--and a blessed relief from all those smiley faces." --The Plain Dealer "Precisely crafted, hard-hitting. . . analysis of the national mass fantasy of wishful thinking " --The Dallas Morning News "Relentless and persuasive. . . In a voice urgent and passionate, Ehrenreich offers us neither extreme [between positive thinking and being a spoilsport] but instead balance: joy, happiness, yes; sadness, anger, yes. She favors life with a clear head, eyes wide open." --San Francisco Chronicle "Ehrenreich reprises her role as Dorothy swishing back the curtain on a great and powerful given." --The Oregonian "A message that deserves to be heard." --Jezebel "Gleefully pops the positive-thinking bubble. . . Amazingly, shell make you laugh, albeit ruefully, as she presents how societys relentless focus on being upbeat has eroded our ability to ask--and heed--the kind of uncomfortable questions that could have fended off economic disaster." --FastCompany.com "Ehrenreich convinced me completely. . . I hesitate to say anything so positive as that this book will change the way you see absolutely everything; but it just might." --Nora Ephron, The Daily Beast "Ehrenreich delivers a trenchant look into the burgeoning business of positive thinking." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "Bright, incisive, provocative thinking from a top-notch nonfiction writer." --Kirkus, starred review "Wide-ranging and stinging look at the pervasiveness of positive thinking. . ." --Booklist, starred review "Were always being told that looking on the bright side is good for us, but now we see that its a great way to brush off poverty, disease, and unemployment, to rationalize an order where all the rewards go to those on top. The people who are sick or jobless--why, they just arent thinking positively. They have no one to blame but themselves. Barbara Ehrenreich has put the menace of positive thinking under the microscope. Anyone whos ever been told to brighten up needs to read this book." --Thomas Frank, author of The Wrecking Crew and Whats the Matter with Kansas? "Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil: please read this relentlessly sensible book. Its never too late to begin thinking clearly." --Frederick Crews, author of Follies of the Wise: Dissenting Essays "Barbara Ehrenreichs skeptical common sense is just what we need to penetrate the cloying fog that passes for happiness in America." --Alan Wolfe, author of The Future of Liberalism "In this hilarious and devastating critique, Barbara Ehrenreich applies some much needed negativity to the zillion-dollar business of positive thinking. This is truly a text for the times." --Katha Pollitt, author of The Mind-Body Problem: Poems "Unless you keep on saying that you believe in fairies, Tinker Bell will check out, and whats more, her sad demise will be your fault! Barbara Ehrenreich scores again for the independent-minded in resisting this drool and all those who wallow in it." --Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything "In this hard-hitting but honest appraisal, Americas cultural skeptic Barbara Ehrenreich turns her focus on the muddled American phenomenon of positive thinking. She exposes the pseudoscience and pseudointellectual foundation of the positive-thinking movement for what it is: a house of cards. This is a mind-opening read." --Michael Shermer, author of Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time "Once again, Barbara Ehrenreich has written an invaluable and timely book, offering a brilliant analysis of the causes and dimensions of our current cultural and economic crises. She shows how deeply positive thinking is embedded in our history and how crippling it is as a habit of mind." --Thomas Bender, author of A Nation Among Nations: Americas Place in World History Review Quote Wide-ranging and stinging look at the pervasiveness of positive thinking. . . Excerpt from Book Introduction Americans are a "positive" people. This is our reputation as well as our self-image. We smile a lot and are oft en baffled when people from other cultures do not return the favor. In the well-worn stereotype, we are upbeat, cheerful, optimistic, and shallow, while foreigners are likely to be subtle, world-weary, and possibly decadent. American expatriate writers like Henry James and James Baldwin wrestled with and occasionally reinforced this stereotype, which I once encountered in the 1980s in the form of a remark by Soviet Details ISBN0312658850 Author Barbara Ehrenreich Language English ISBN-10 0312658850 ISBN-13 9780312658854 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 155.232 Short Title BRIGHT SIDED Residence Key West, FL, US Year 2010 Publication Date 2010-08-03 Subtitle How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America Imprint St Martins Press Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2010-08-03 NZ Release Date 2010-08-03 US Release Date 2010-08-03 UK Release Date 2010-08-03 Pages 256 Publisher St Martins Press Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:43652846;

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