Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World - Softcover

Barbara Ehrenreich

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847081738 ISBN 13: 9781847081735

Publisher: Granta, 2010

Synopsis

This brilliant new book from the author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch explores the tyranny of positive thinking, and offers a history of how it came to be the dominant mode in the USA. Ehrenreich conceived of the book when she became ill with breast cancer, and found herself surrounded by pink ribbons and platitudes. She balked at the way her anger about having the disease was seen as unhealthy and dangerous by health professionals and other sufferers. In her droll and incisive analysis of the cult of cheerfulness, Ehrenreich ranges across contemporary religion, business and the economy, arguing, for example, that undue optimism and a fear of giving bad news sowed the seeds for the current banking crisis. She argues passionately that the insistence on being cheerful actually leads to a lonely focus inwards, a blaming of oneself for any misfortunes, and thus to political apathy. Rigorous, insightful and bracing as always, and also incredibly funny, "Smile or Die" uncovers the dark side of the 'have a nice day' nation.

About this title

Review:

'It's a provocative dismantling of the Positive Thinking Industry, exposing it for what it is - a complete fraud. It'll prevent me slapping any relentlessly cheerful castaways who tell me to 'turn that frown upside down'.' --'My desert islands books' chosen by Rosie Garland. Metro

About the Author:

BARBARA EHRENREICH is the author of fourteen books, including the bestselling Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She lives in Virginia, USA.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1847081738
• ISBN 13: 9781847081735
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256