Happiness : a history
An intellectual history of man's most elusive yet coveted goal. Today, we think of happiness as a natural right, but people haven't always felt this way. Historian McMahon argues that our modern belief in happiness is a recent development, the product of a revolution in human expectations carried out since the eighteenth century. He investigates that fundamental transformation by synthesizing two thousand years of politics, culture, and thought. In ancient Greek tragedy, happiness was considered a gift of the gods. During the Enlightenment men and women were first introduced to the novel prospect that they could--in fact should--be happy in this life as opposed to the hereafter. This recognition of happiness as a motivating ideal led to its consecration in the Declaration of Independence. McMahon then shows how our modern search continues to generate new forms of pleasure, but also, paradoxically, new forms of pain.--From publisher description
History
xvi, 544 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780871138866, 9780802142894, 0871138867, 0802142893
60312053
Introduction : the tragedy of happiness
The highest good
Perpetual felicity
From heaven to earth
Self-evident truths
A modern rite
Questioning the evidence
Liberalism and its discontents
Building happy worlds
Joyful science
Conclusion : happy ending