Drawing on numerous sources, including art and architecture, poetry and Scripture, music and theology, literature and myth, Mcmahon offers a sweeping intellectual History of man\'s most elusive yet coveted goal--happiness.
In the tradition of works by Peter Gay and Simon Schama, Happiness draws on a multitude of sources, including art and architecture, poetry and scripture, music and theology, and literature and myth, to offer a sweeping intellectual History of man\'s most elusive yet coveted goal..
Mcmahon argues that our modern belief in happiness is the product of a dramatic revolution in human expectations carried out since the eighteenth century.
In this sweeping new book, historian Darrin M.
Yet it\'s only within the past two hundred years that human beings have begun to think of happiness as not just an earthly possibility but also as an earthly entitlement, even an obligation.
Throughout history, happiness has been equated regularly with the highest human calling, the most perfect human state.
For Christians, happiness was synonymous with God.
For the Romans, it implied prosperity and divine favor.
For the ancient Greeks, happiness meant virtue.
But they haven\'t always felt this way.
Today, human beings tend to think of happiness as a natural right.
Drawing on numerous sources, including art and architecture, poetry and Scripture, music and theology, literature and myth, Mcmahon offers a sweeping intellectual History of man\'s most elusive yet coveted goal--happiness
