How long does it take to read Bright-sided?
how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America
Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich takes about 4 hours 19 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 19 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2009. 235 pages, about 64,625 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 11 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 19 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 42 minutes |
The page count is the median across 10 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
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 myth-busting 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.
Subjects: Self-confidence, Happiness, Optimism, Success in business, Self-deception, Optimisme
