In this highly original and hugely entertaining account, Barbara Ehrenreich confronts the cult of positive thinking in America. She examines the impact of positive thinking on religion, medicine, academia and the business community, and exposes the psychological effects of a world which tells us to 'put on a happy face'. From the pink ribbons and platitudes that surround breast cancer sufferers to the blind optimism that led to the recent economic disaster, Ehrenreich pokes holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ends with a rallying cry for clarity and courage.

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of over twenty books, including Nickel & Dimed: Undercover in Low-Wage USA, Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World and Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. She has written for Time, Harper's, the Progressive, the Nation, the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, The Times and the New Statesman. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.