Shelf life: Looking at secular books

Sarah Allen  |  Features  |  Secular Shelf Life
Date posted:  1 Apr 2010
Share Add       

SMILE OR DIE
How Positive Thinking fooled America and the World
By Barbara Ehrenreich. Granta. 235 pages. £10.99
ISBN 978-1-84708-135-3

Jemimah, aged six, came home from school yesterday saying that she had done well at school because ‘I believed in myself’.

Her siblings sing in assembly, ‘I can do anything I want to, I can climb the highest mountain’. Those in the workplace are encouraged to ‘think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential’ by Pope John XXII. Positive thinking is all around us and, Barbara Ehrenreich claims in this accessible and significant book, it has fooled us all.

Share
< Previous article| Features| Next article >
Read more articles by Sarah Allen >>
Features
Racism, brutality and our  need of redemption

Racism, brutality and our need of redemption

We’ve had a Spring and Summer of few new film releases and re-runs on TV so, perhaps like you, my …

Comment
Misogyny, rights & Rowling

Misogyny, rights & Rowling

It might have seemed as if the isolation of lockdown was making people mad last month when the stars of …

Looking for a job?

Browse all our current job adverts

Search

Need to advertise?

We can help you reach Christians across the country.

Find out more