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In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to "prosper" you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness." Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.
With the myth-busting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. 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.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Self-confidence, Success in business, Optimism, HappinessPlaces
United StatesShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Bright-sided: how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America
2009, Metropolitan Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0805087494 9780805087499
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Libraries near you:
WorldCat
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2
Bright-sided: how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America
2009, Metropolitan Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0805087494 9780805087499
|
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-223) and index.
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The Physical Object
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Feedback?July 29, 2022 | Edited by soeri | description |
February 13, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | remove fake subjects |
October 8, 2017 | Edited by MARC Bot | merge duplicate works of 'Bright-sided' |
July 22, 2017 | Edited by Mek | adding subject: In library |
April 19, 2011 | Created by ImportBot | initial import |