"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
"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 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,
she''ll make you laugh, albeit ruefully, as she presents how
society''s 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
"We''re always being told that looking on the bright side is good
for us, but now we see that it''s 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 aren''t thinking positively. They have no one to blame
but themselves. Barbara Ehrenreich has put the menace of positive
thinking under the microscope. Anyone who''s ever been told to
brighten up needs to read this book."-Thomas Frank, author of
The Wrecking Crew and What''s the Matter with
Kansas?
"Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil: please read this
relentlessly sensible book. It's never too late to begin thinking
clearly."-Frederick Crews, author of Follies of the Wise:
Dissenting Essays
"Barbara Ehrenreich's 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 what's 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, America's 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: America's Place in World History