Books

Books : reviews

Barbara Ehrenreich.
Smile or Die: how positive thinking fooled America and the world.
Granta. 2009

A frontal attack on the cult of positive thinking from America’s sharpest, smartest commentator, Smile or Die is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how critical thinking has become marginalised in the US. From health to academia, the economy to Iraq, Ehrenreich exposes a trail of denial, delusion and bad faith, and reveals the often disastrous consequences of putting on ‘a happy face’.