A witty and empathetic examination of the merits and limitations of optimism is a helpful guide with a hopeful message for uncertain times
In the final episode of Welcome to Wrexham’s third series, football club director Shaun Harvey tells viewers: “We’ve got positivity on our side.” Optimism certainly seems to have propelled his team to some greatness, but is that always the case? Is thinking positively about an unpredictable future always the right choice?
That’s the central question behind Sumit Paul-Choudhury’s new volume. Not another book on positivity, I hear you cry. Norman Vincent Peale’s bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking set the stage for this field in 1952. Many others followed. Most recently, Roxie Nafousi’s Manifest takes a self-help approach to the subject, teaching readers how to think more positively to shape their future. And with more than 1m copies sold, it is clear that our appetite for optimism endures.
