• Bright-sided

  • How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
  • By: Barbara Ehrenreich
  • Narrated by: Kate Reading
  • Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (487 ratings)

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Bright-sided

By: Barbara Ehrenreich
Narrated by: Kate Reading
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Editorial reviews

Liberal essayist Barbara Ehrenreich has been cranking out a fresh book on some aspect of the follies and failings in American social justice every few years since 1969. Twenty books later, she brings us this gem addressing the perils of positive thinking. Named a "Voice of the Century" by AudioFile magazine, Kate Reading has given voice to well over a hundred books and is one of Audible's featured narrators. This is Reading's first time at bat with Ehrenreich's work, and predictably, she knocks it out of the park.

The majority of Ehrenreich's books tend to focus on a large institution or systemic national problem, such as health care or concerns of the middle class. Bright-sided tackles the increasingly fashionable idea that "the power of positive thinking" can guide Americans through any type of crisis. Unlike some of her previous work, this book aligns all of Ehrenreich's interests and brings each facet of her expertise to bear on one very nebulous and fluffy opponent. Across this shady and shifting psychological battlefield, Reading keeps up every step of the way. Her tone is terrifically authoritative and methodical in the opening chapters where Ehrenreich uses her degree in microbiology to knock down the pseudoscientific studies and rationales for promoting optimism one by one. Reading softens the critical edge without getting overly syrupy when Ehrenreich moves into her more personal anecdotes about struggling to defeat breast cancer without the aid of cheerfulness.

Where both author and narrator really shine is the second half of the book, which attacks the three-headed zombie of academic, religious, and economic blindness created by this new culture of "optimism at all costs". Reading's witty account of Ehrenreich's reluctant participation in a set of terrifyingly solipsistic corporate motivation seminars is laugh-out-loud funny. Her sly report of the author's attempt to interview one of the most renowned psychologists in the positive thinking industry and her indignant take on the author's visitation to an evangelical mega-church will leave your blood boiling. After all the piling up of mortgage defaults and other assorted hardships that stem from too much happy talk and not enough material consideration, Ehrenreich's call to vigilant realism is as inevitable as it is refreshing. Kate Reading's crafty rendering of Ehrenreich's latest myth-busting book is sure to lift the spirits of all who feel guilty for finding little to smile about in these uncertain times. Megan Volpert

Publisher's summary

Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-sided is a sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism

Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.

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 mythbusting 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.

©2009 Barbara Ehrenreich (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Kate Reading handles her latest refreshingly askance look at like in America with a nuanced, meticulous narration that ensures listeners will miss none of Ehrenreich's acerbic humor or commonsense look at our penchant for delusion...Reading's skillful performance makes it all a positive pleasure to take in.” —AudioFile, Earphones Award Winner

“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'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

What listeners say about Bright-sided

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Balanced

I was skeptical when I heard about this book since I know first hand what stress can do to the body. However, this book isn't an argument for pessimism so much as it's a call to action in the fight against the pervasive passivity that's been seeping into our culture. The "positive attitude" rhetoric that I'm constantly confronted with at school and work has been driving me nuts for years, and now hearing someone point out all its flaws provided me with a feeling of relief and (go figure) hope.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Finally an Answer to "The Secret"

At last! Someone SANE! Someone who can see the downside to being Up and Thinking Positive all the time.

I had heard Barbara's take on the "cancer survivor" issue on Book TV on CSPAN a few years ago. In the book, she goes into more detail. I agree and won't buy anything "pink" as a result.
The Secret and all the other Think Positive, Use the Universe and Magnetism to Attract, and the Name It Claim It people out there are really messing up the minds of a generation or two. It is insidious and has crept into almost every aspect of American life. It is frightening.
If you are tired of the Blame The Victim mentality of this nation, here is a book that at least explains the source of that way of thinking. Because, you see, if anything bad happens to you, it is because YOU attracted it to yourself by considering it, by not thinking positively enough, or by allowing it to happen to yourself -- according to the prevailing thought. Lost your job? Lost your home to foreclosure? Got sick? Yep, Positive Thinking will tell you it is all your own fault. Barbara Ehrenreich tells you that is all bunk! And I believe her.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 10-16-09

Finally!

At last someone's taken on the positive-thinking crowd with some much-needed realism and humor. Ehrenreich doesn't totally discount the power of being positive but neither does she buy into the hype and nonsense of continual positive thinking and creating your own reality. With nice touches of juxtaposition she brings life to what would otherwise be a dull statistic-filled tome.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A Great Book Deserving of a Much Better Reader

Thanks goodness Barbara Erinreich is still publishing. This book is such a relief for those of us oppressed by unrelenting demands to be optimistic even when the worst outcomes are inevitable. This book is so important for people to read. The reader is really terrible, I think and that was a big disappointment.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Comeback for Realism

Dr. Ehernreich writes a fascinating account the puritanical roots of positive thinking. Her taking apart of Positive Psychology is superb. She presents an excellent case for us to get out of magical thinking and pay closer attention to what our five senses are showing us about the world.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Bright-Sided Gives Realists Hope

This is a solid book. This looks at the idea that the culture of "positive thinking" has turned into groupthink and why it was key to why we had the giant economic crash we did in recent years.. and is in many ways a psychological pacifier for the masses.

Not that one should be negative all the time - this isn't about depression, or always criticizing - but when dealing with facts is falsely called "pessimism" there's a real problem; when questioning assumptions is "negative thinking," that means an organization is living in delusion and it's time is numbered. And that's what happened at Lehman Brothers and other companies where they could of avoided the problems that befell their companies and our country.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • D
  • 02-05-12

For the Positivity Deficit

If you’ve ever read an economic forecast in the newspaper and thought it sounded suspiciously like a TV weatherman, "This is up while this is down but, all in all, the outlook is fair to good", then this book is for you.

It’s an excellent study in hegemony for anyone haunted (and alienated) by the feeling that the world they live in is a little less candy-coated than the world they’re told they live in (via media). Furthermore, Ehnrenreich’s amused but cynical take on the subject, and the humor she finds in it, is well served by Reading’s perky narration. One of my favorite finds on Audible so far.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

This book changed my life

Every now and then a book will actually change how I see the world, and this book is one of those. Wonderfully written and beautifully read, it points out a way of thinking that's so ubiquitous it's hard to see. And the author doesn't hammer you with arguments--she mainly just gives the facts and lets you draw the conclusions yourself.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not what the title says it is

In her eager to spread her dislike of positive thinking, the author doesn't follow her own advice to "look at the world the way it is". As "typical positive thinkers" she takes extremists in the religion and among motivational speakers who have found a way to make big money of the human weakness of hunger for money without effort.
The title of the book is misleading, because what she mostly writes about is "The Law of Attraction", the belief held by some that money and success comes from pure wishing. And to make the conclusion that the financial crisis and the fall of Lehmann Brothers was caused by positive thinking seems to me a mix-up of positive thinking with the human weakness called greed.
To talk about "see the world as it is" I find a bit presumptuos. Is there any "the world as it is"? Doesn't that depend on if you are an american or an african? Or if you ask a christian or a muslim?
I expected more of this book, and even if the author spent a lot of time trying to find historical evidence about the consequences of positive thinking, it was too evident that the purpose was only to support her own purpose of miscrediting positiveness in society.
If criticizing a phenomenon like positive thinking, an alternative way of thinking or acting is expected. Nothing of that came out as a result of this book.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not so great

I hesitate to give a bad opinion of this book.
Her book, "Nickel and Dimed" was great in my opinion, but she's gone down hill since.
With each new book, she sounds less like an objective observer and commentator (as in Nickel and Dimed) and sounds increasingly like a bitter conservative radio talk show host. I couldn't help but to visualize a constant condescending sneer on her face with each new paragraph. Not sure, it actually could have been the selection of narrator on this project that made it hard to listen too or take very seriously.
As much as I would love to recommend this one, I can't do it. I can get this kind of gratuitous negative commentary for free during drive time.

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4 people found this helpful