‘It was a sickening sensation…’: Shackleton, E. (1920). South: The story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917. The Macmillan Company. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/South:_the_story_of_Shackleton%27s_last_expedition,_1914-1917
A timeline of Shackleton’s 1914–17 Antarctic expedition is at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/timeline.html
Shackleton led every one of his men to safety [footnote]: Every man on the Endurance survived, but the receiving party on the other side of Antarctica fared badly: unaware of Shackleton’s difficulties, they went to extraordinary but ultimately pointless lengths to lay out supply dumps for his anticipated crossing. Several men died in the process.
An advert in The Times: Horrell, M. (2012, October 10). Safe return doubtful: Was Shackleton’s advert apocryphal? https://www.markhorrell.com/blog/2012/safe-return-doubtful-was-shackletons-advert-apocryphal/
The Antarctic Circle has offered $100, plus bottles of madeira and bourbon, to anyone who can prove the original source of the advert text.
His criteria could appear quixotic: Snow, D. (2022). How Shackleton picked his crew. History Hit. https://www.historyhit.com/how-shackleton-picked-his-crew/
the receiving party… fared badly: Snow, D. (2023, November 6). The tragic story of Shackleton’s stranded Ross Sea party. History Hit. https://www.historyhit.com/tragic-story-ross-sea-party/
‘Optimism is true moral courage’: The original source of this quote appears to be an account written by the meteorologist on the Endurance expedition:
Hussey, L. D. A. (1949). South with Shackleton (First). Sampson Low.
But I first heard it from a member of the Shackleton family, for whom the importance of optimism is part of the family creed, as cited by a different family member in this article:
Tillard, P. (2019, August 23). The make of the man, by Ben Saunders. Shackleton. https://shackleton.com/blogs/articles/ernest-shackleton-by-ben-saunders
‘Old Cautious’: Ward, S. (2024, October 14). Memorial cross for explorer Ernest Shackleton unveiled after 8,000 mile journey. The Scotsman. https://www.scotsman.com/news/memorial-cross-for-explorer-ernest-shackleton-unveiled-after-8000-mile-journey-4823289
a live ass [correction]: This should have been ‘a live donkey’; corrected after the first printing.
His cheery optimism: Shackleton, E. (1920). Elephant Island. In South: The story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917. The Macmillan Company. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/South:_the_story_of_Shackleton%27s_last_expedition,_1914-1917/Chapter_12
her 1903 essay ‘Optimism’: Keller, H. (n.d.). Optimism (1903). American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved January 12, 2025, from https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/books-essays-speeches/optimism-1903
Charles Dickens’s touching account: Dickens, C. (1913). Boston. In American notes for general circulation and pictures from Italy. Chapman & Hall. https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/675/pg675-images.html#page22
The fingers were those: Ozick, C. (2003, June 8). How Helen Keller learned to write. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/06/16/what-helen-keller-saw
faking her condition: Gershon, L. (2021, June 19). What does it mean to call Helen Keller a fraud? JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/what-does-it-mean-to-call-helen-keller-a-fraud/
The Helen Keller exorcism. (2022, March 11). Radiolab. https://radiolab.org/podcast/helen-keller-exorcism
Footnote: This scepticism endures: in recent years, ‘Helen Keller denialism’ has circulated among TikTokers who don’t believe that what they’re hearing in school is a true story.
It’s of its time [footnote]: Many of the historical figures whose ideas I discuss in The Bright Side held views that many, including me, would find objectionable today. I’ve mentioned such views only where I felt those views were directly relevant to the argument I’m making.
Keller, for example, contrasts her American triumphalism with the supposed fatalism of the ‘Hindoos’ of India, ‘the underworld of fatalism – where three hundred million human beings, scarcely men, submerged in ignorance and misery, precipitate themselves still deeper into the pit’. Like many apologists for colonialism past and present, she presents the subjugation of India by a foreign power as a consequence of the spiritual weakness of its people.
There might be an interesting discussion to be had about how religions encode optimism or fatalism, particularly given the role of theodicy discussed in Chapter 4, but such a discussion would not today be made using the terms used by Keller.
conditional optimism: Romer, P. (2018, October 8). Conditional optimism. Paul Romer. https://paulromer.net/conditional-optimism-technology-and-climate/
indefinite optimism [should be definite optimism]: Price, W. (2014, September 24). Zero to one, Peter Thiel’s view on the importance of definite optimism. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140924171143-103827-zero-to-one-peter-thiel-s-view-on-the-importance-of-definite-optimism
optimistic nihilism: Kurzgesagt. (2017). Optimistic nihilism [Video]. In Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRqu0YOH14. Hosted by YouTube.
tragic optimism: Kaufman, S. B. (2021, August 18). The opposite of toxic positivity. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/08/tragic-optimism-opposite-toxic-positivity/619786/
cruel optimism: Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel optimism. Duke University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1220p4w
pragmatic optimism: Monehin, D. (2022). The pragmatic optimist: Six proven strategies for leading during a crisis. Seventy9 West Books.
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Oettingen, G. (2016). Pragmatic prospection: How and why people think about the future. Review of General Psychology, 20(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000060
rational optimism: Ridley, M. (2010). The rational optimist: How prosperity evolves. Fourth Estate. https://www.mattridley.co.uk/books/the-rational-optimist-how-prosperity-evolves/
nauseous optimism: Reich, R. (2024, August 5). Why we need nauseous optimism. Substack. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/bliss
epistemological optimism: Reynolds, P. L. (2001). Properties, causality and epistemological optimism in Thomas Aquinas. Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales, 68(2), 270–309. https://doi.org/10.2143/rtpm.68.2.954
apocalyptic optimism: Soloski, A. (2024, April 21). Climate doom is out. “apocalyptic optimism” is in. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/arts/television/climate-change-apocalypse-optimism.html
a novel way of keeping their milk fresh: Ewbank, A. (2018, April 19). Can putting a frog in milk keep it fresh? Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/frogs-in-milk
Footnote: They might just have had a point. In 2012, scientists from Russia (where else?) found that some frogs secrete a remarkably large number of antibacterial chemicals through their skins.
Pessimism traps… the philosopher Jennifer Morton, who popularised the concept: Loose references to ‘pessimism traps’ have appeared sporadically for years, but the concept was articulated well by Morton in this piece, which also provides the evidence: Morton, J. M. (2022, June 8). We are all caught in a pessimism trap but there is a way out. Psyche. https://psyche.co/ideas/we-are-all-caught-in-a-pessimism-trap-but-there-is-a-way-out
The US survey referenced by Morton (but plenty of others exist): Brenan, M. (2022, January 31). Satisfaction with own life five times higher than with U.S. Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/389375/satisfaction-own-life-five-times-higher.aspx
The European 2019 survey referenced by Morton: de Vries, C. E., & Hoffmann, I. (2020, May 28). The optimism gap: Personal complacency versus societal pessimism in European public opinion. Eupinions. https://eupinions.eu/de/text/the-optimism-gap
only 42 per cent felt that way about the future of their countries [footnote}: Many surveys gauge life satisfaction, well-being or happiness. Optimism is related to those qualities, as we’ll see, but it isn’t identical to any of them; and fewer surveys ask about it.
optimism gap {footnote]: Similarly, references to the optimism gap have appeared sporadically for years: The optimism gap grows: Politics, morality, entitlements sap confidence. (1997, January 17). Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/1997/01/17/the-optimism-gap-grows/
But the phrase gained currency with David Whitman’s 1998 book: Whitman, D. (1998). The optimism gap: The I’m OK – they’re not syndrome and the myth of American decline. Walker And Co. https://archive.org/details/optimismgapimokt00whit
and has since been adopted widely, for example: Roach, C. (2024, September 19). What’s the ‘economic optimism gap’ and how can closing it lead to a better workplace? World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/09/closing-economic-optimism-gap-better-workplace/
Baldwin was interviewed for television: A conversation with James Baldwin. (n.d.). American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Retrieved January 15, 2025, from https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_15-0v89g5gf5r (with transcript)
earlier that same day: Wikipedia contributors. (2017). Baldwin–Kennedy meeting. In Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin%E2%80%93Kennedy_meeting
a pivotal year for the US civil rights movement: Younge, G. (2013, May 7). 1963: The defining year of the civil rights movement. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/07/1963-defining-year-civil-rights