The Pursuit of Happiness

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An exciting new work of cultural history charting the evolution of happiness over two thousand years. Today, human beings think of happiness as a natural right. But we haven't always: on the contrary, argues Darrin McMahon in this inspiring and sweeping book, our modern belief in happiness is a relatively recent development - the product of a dramatic revolution in human expectations which has taken place since the eighteenth century. McMahon investigates that extraordinary transformation in thinking by synthesizing two thousand years of politics, culture and thought. In ancient Greek tragedy, he shows, happiness was considered a gift of the gods. For the Romans, <i>felicitas</i> was connected with the erotic. Though central to the development and reception of Christianity, it was not until the Enlightenment that ideas of happiness assumed their modern form, when men and women were first introduced to the novel idea that they could - in fact shou - be happy in this life as well as in the hereafter. Ultimately, this recognition of happiness as a motivating ideal led to its consecration in the declaration of Independence and of the Rights of Man. McMahon follows this great pursuit through to the present day, showing how our modern search for happiness continues to generate new forms of pleasure, but also, paradoxically, new forms of pain. Perfect happiness, like the Holy Grail, may exist only in our minds, and McMahon helps us discover that, as for Cervantes' knight of sad countenance, Quixote, to travel is better than to arrive. <i>The Pursuit of Happiness</i> draws on a great range of sources, including art and architecture, poetry and scripture, music and theology, literature and myth, to offer a superb history of man's most elusive yet coveted goal.