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Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World Paperback – June 1, 2010

by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)

15 customer reviews

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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 bunny rabbits and platitudes. She balked at the way her anger and sadness about having the disease were seen as unhealthy and dangerous by health professionals and other sufferers. In her droll and incisive analysis of the cult of cheerfulness, Ehrenreich also 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, "Happy Face" uncovers the dark side of the 'have a nice day' nation.

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Editorial Reviews

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.

Product details

Paperback: 235 pages
Publisher: Granta Books (UK) (June 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1847081355
ISBN-13: 978-1847081353
Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 15 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #603,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3536 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture > General
- #44496 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences

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Barbara Ehrenreich Book Review

May 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

I have been an admirer of Barbara E. for a long time. She's a good writer and makes interesting things even more interesting. The book mainly deals with how the corporate, business, medical and religious worlds demand a "positive" attitude.. or else! Entertaining read. The only thing I was disappointed with was that this book had previously been released under another title .. "Bright Sided" and so I bought a book I had already read. I did like the book a lot, so I read it again. I do think it is a little sneaky for publishers...and Amazon.. to pull this trick.. and if they do they ought to advise the buyer about it.

32 people found this helpful

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A fine perspective on a cognitive sinkhole

January 9, 2013

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Clearly a cut above. Ehrenreich continually entertains and educates her readers in this description of the dangers of magical thinking and unfounded optimism. The author, whose tone could best be described as constructively pessimistic, gives ample background and lets the proponents of positive thinking speak their piece (thereby giving them just enough rope...). Do not miss it.

7 people found this helpful

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Frown and prosper

January 24, 2014

Verified Purchase

Entertaining, well written and a sympathetic thesis. This is a great book for those wondering why they can't just grit their teeth and fake happiness. I am interested in this authors other works now.

9 people found this helpful

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I really enjoyed it.

April 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

As advertised.
I really enjoyed it...in a depressing way.

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Norman Vincent Peale was a Charlatan; Thank You Barbara!

March 7, 2011

Verified Purchase

Barbara's fractally correct in every possible way here; one simply *cannot* choose to be happy. We would all be better off if we dismissed this blatant lie touted by Norman Vincent Peale. In her introduction, she addresses and clarifies the difference between hope (a natural, involuntary emotion we feel when things appear to be going our way, or, at the very least, appear to be improving) and optimism (a state of mind that can be cultivated through sufficient practice and expensive positivity seminars and/or prosperity gospel sermons). This is crucial - the positive charlatans of recent decades advocate forced optimism, not realistic, spontaneous, justified hope. This, obviously, would explain why on most happiness metrics, despite having a reputation has a "positive" country, the US scores deplorably. With an obscenely high poverty rate and prison population, this is hardly news to anyone living outside a cave. And, as Barbara astutely notes, positivity only works when it is not forced. Trying to impose happiness on oneself only leads to bitterness and a desire to rush home and switch off the Optimism Switch in one's head, for the culture of the US has been so polluted by positive thinking that many feel the only place they can be themselves (and realistic and/or pessimistic) is outside the gaze of others.

She shows how right-wing demagogues often cite pithy positive thinking platitudes as an attempt to blame those in perpetual poverty. And as we all know, those who fail to "will" the cancer away are never the subject of happy positive thinking books. And perhaps worst of all, positive thinking removes all motivation to improve societies and living conditions. External conditions are almost always dismissed by these gurus and charlatans.

Reading Smile or Die, I was reminded of a horribly callous sermon in Japan, where the pastor extolled the benefits of frugality and unequivocally spoke out against materialism. For his example du jour, he cited victims of the Haiti earthquake and how "happy" they were. Really? Is that the best they can do? If I lost everything and everyone I held dear in an earthquake, smiling might be the only way I could cope. It most certainly would not be a sign of happiness or satisfaction after going through such a grueling natural disaster.

Positive thinking has a horrible dark side that would lead to the instant dismissal of any doctor who prescribed positivity in lieu of radiotherapy for cancer. As anyone with any experience with the bile that Pollyannas spew forth on a daily basis, one of their implied mantras is "if you fail, it's your own fault." Spare me, please. On a personal note, I particularly enjoyed Barbara's mention of the Despair website, built around the idea of counter-optimism with its Demotivational line of posters, mugs, plaques, etc.

The author's research is impeccable. She unearths the deadly, fatalistic roots of positive thinking that came from the Calvinist branch of Christianity. Every word is enlightening and well worth reading.

Barbara ends this book with a clarion call to reason, citing some of the most cruel, heartless and ignorant consequences of positive thinking, including that of Rhonda Byrne, who claimed that tsunamis could only happen to those who are "on the same frequency as the event."

Everyone who has been deceived by positivity needs to read this book.

22 people found this helpful

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August 21, 2012

Verified Purchase

I was ( and still am ) lucky to have encountered the title of this book through the Internet, and luckiest to have bought this book and have read it from cover to cover, even though I am a naivete and did not have much knowledge about the author. With her renowned talent and with the honest feeling she had from the beginning when she started thinking about writing a book about being "positive", nothing could go wrong. I was touched, toward the end of this best-seller, when I read, to quote, "This is the project of science: to pool the rigorous observations of many people into a tentative accounting of the world, which will of course always be subject to revisions arising from fresh obserbations." Our life, including( sad to say ) what she wrote, is ephemeral, and she knows it.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

March 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

Very good

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Mariana Barrancos

November 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

Love it!

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