Comments on: ‘Smile or Die’ – Barbara Ehrenreich’s ‘Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America’ http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/ Janice Harayda Reviews Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry for Adults and Children Thu, 16 May 2013 19:28:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Barbara Ehrenreich about ‘positive thinking’ | Dear Kitty. Some blog http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-8541 Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:11:04 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-8541 [...] James Walsh in Britain: Smile Or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich (Hawthorn, [...]

]]> By: Some evils of positive thinking « Phil Ebersole's Blog http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-8348 Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:03:10 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-8348 [...] on ‘Smile or Die’: Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided for a review of the [...]

]]> By: Positively wrong : Matthew Taylor’s blog http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-7945 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:04:32 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-7945 [...] have just read a fantastic new book by American social commentator Barbara Ehrenreich; ‘Smile or Die. How positive thinking fooled America and the world’. Barbara is speaking about the book at the RSA in the new year, come if you can, or tune in if [...]

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-7847 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:25:17 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-7847 That’s a great essay for anyone who wants to learn more about Bright-sided, because it lays out more broadly than “Welcome to Cancerland” the themes of the book. It also contains a lot of material that found its way, in different form, into Bright-sided. Thank you for the link!

Interestingly, Ehrenreich seems to have toned down some of the ideas in the “against hope” essay for Bright-sided. I don’t recall that she used the phrase “truly sinister” for the cheerleaders for positivity in the book (though I’ve returned it to the library and couldn’t immediately check).

Perhaps the most revealing quote in Ehrenreich’s essay on hope is:

“A representative of the American Cancer Society rebuffed a researcher in the mid-Nineties by saying that the organization didn’t ‘want to be associated with a book on death. We want to emphasize the positive aspects of cancer only.’” Isn’t there a difference between talking about the positive aspects of life with or after cancer and the “positive aspects of cancer” itself? If so, you don’t see it in the ACS quote.
Jan

]]> By: Jon http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-7846 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:55:33 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-7846 I found it on her site. It originally appeared in in Harper’s. Here’s a link (though the background color makes it almost unreadable): http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/hope.htm

I finished Have a Little Faith. I think I know what you’ll say… ;)

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-7845 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:39:38 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-7845 I’d missed that essay, but it sounds as though it would fit in well with the theme of this one. Bright-sided seems to me to be an important book, if only because Ehrenreich is the first author with a big “platform” (the new favorite word of publishers) to challenge much of the conventional wisdom about positive thinking. But I wish she’d projected fewer of her biases (about religion, for example) onto her arguments.

By the way, I did get Mitch Albom’s book a few days ago and will review it soon :) . I wonder what it says about reading tastes that I had to wait longer for Have a Little Faith than for The Lost Symbol …

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-7844 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:19:23 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-7844 You’re very welcome, Sarah. Would love to know what you think of it after you’ve read it. Bright-sided could be a great book-club book, because people are likely to have strong opinions one way or the other.

]]> By: Jon http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-7843 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:32:49 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-7843 Thanks for this review. I stumbled across this in the bookstore and was intrigued. If I remember correctly, a number of years ago she wrote an essay that was titled “F–k Hope.” Is that included? It seems like it would fit with the theme.

BTW, Best Line: “You sense that such programs are exactly kind of thing that Ehrenreich might love, if only they weren’t endorsed by pastors who wear too much gel in their mullets.” :)

]]> By: sarahsk http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/%e2%80%98smile-or-die%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-barbara-ehrenreich%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98bright-sided-how-the-relentless-promotion-of-positive-thinking-has-undermined-america%e2%80%99/#comment-7840 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:16:10 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/?p=16829#comment-7840 Thanks for this review. I really liked “Nickel and Dimed” and I put “Bright- Sided” on hold at the library immediately after seeing Ehrenreich on The Daily Show. Reading your take on the book has only made me more excited to read it!

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