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Happier?: The History of a Cultural Movement That Aspired to Transform America 1st Edition

by Daniel Horowitz (Author)
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
See all formats and editions
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When a cultural movement that began to take shape in the mid-twentieth century erupted into mainstream American culture in the late 1990s, it brought to the fore the idea that it is as important to improve one's own sense of pleasure as it is to manage depression and anxiety. Cultural historian Daniel Horowitz's research reveals that this change happened in the context of key events. World War II, the Holocaust, post-war prosperity, the rise of counter-culture, the crises of the 1970s, the presidency of Ronald Reagan, and the prime ministerships of Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron provided the important context for the development of the field today known as positive psychology.

Happier? provides the first history of the origins, development, and impact of the way Americans -- and now many around the world -- shifted from mental illness to well-being as they pondered the human condition. This change, which came about from the fusing of knowledge drawn from Eastern spiritual traditions, behavioral economics, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and cognitive psychology, has been led by scholars and academic entrepreneurs, as they wrestled with the implications of political events and forces such as neoliberalism and cultural conservatism, and a public eager for self-improvement.

Linking the development of happiness studies and positive psychology with a broad series of social changes, including the emergence of new media and technologies like TED talks, blogs, web sites, and neuroscience, as well as the role of evangelical ministers, Oprah Winfrey's enterprises, and funding from government agencies and private foundations, Horowitz highlights the transfer of specialized knowledge into popular arenas. Along the way he shows how marketing triumphed, transforming academic disciplines and spirituality into saleable products. Ultimately, Happier? illuminates how positive psychology, one of the most influential academic fields of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, infused American culture with captivating promises for a happier society.
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    019065564X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0190655648
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    December 6, 2017
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    9.3 x 1.3 x 6.3 inches
  8. Print length
    320 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Mr. Horowitz's straightforward, comprehensive history of the positive-psychology movement follows the money wherever it leads--and it leads everywhere. He presents every controversy, representing defenders of positive psychology as fully as its critics . . . Daniel Horowitz's history deftly reveals the eternal lessons that underlie all its incarnations: Money can't buy happiness; human beings need social bonds, satisfying work and strong communities; a life based entirely on the pursuit of pleasure ultimately becomes pleasureless. "

--Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal

"Especially compelling is the discussion of the relationship between positive psychology and other contemporary developments."

--Library Journal

"Horowitz explores the history of the relatively new and surprisingly pervasive discipline of happiness studies and positive psychology... a thorough and thoughtful introduction to an influential discipline."

--Publishers Weekly

"An astonishing work of cultural analysis on changes in the field of psychology."

--Spirituality & Practice

"Daniel Horowitz has accomplished an impressive feat. Happier? is a thorough
and judicious history of positive psychology--a movement both influential and
controversial."

--Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education,
Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Kudos to cultural historian Daniel Horowitz for comprehensively chronicling the
emergence of positive psychology--'a cultural movement of tremendous reach and
power.' Thanks to its impressive scholarship and lucid story-telling, Happier? is
the go-to book for anyone seeking to understand the roots and fruits of modern
happiness research."

--David G. Myers, Professor of Psychology, Hope College;
author of The Pursuit of Happiness: Who is Happy--and Why

"Daniel Horowitz has done a Herculean job of compiling an exhaustive history of the
conceptualization and study of happiness, from the early 1940s through the present
day. His work will gently lead the casual reader interested in happiness into the issues
raised by our assumptions about its role in a life well-lived, while experts are sure
to discover new sources and ideas to enrich their own thinking."

--Julie K. Norem, Margaret Hamm Professor of Psychology, Wellesley College; author of The Positive Power of Negative Thinking

"In an impressive work of historical synthesis, Daniel Horowitz shows how academic
and commercial interests have shaped contemporary views of happiness and created
a happiness industry. Horowitz's reach is broad, his judgments are exact, and his
material is entertaining. Hubris and foolishness are constant themes, as even quite
sober researchers seem seduced by the promise--intellectual and financial--of a
topic whose payoff seems always just out of reach."

--Peter D. Kramer, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University; author of Ordinarily Well

"In this comprehensive, well-researched, engaging book, Horowitz (emer., American studies, Smith College) traces the history and development of positive psychology and happiness studies in the US...a highly readable historical meditation on happiness."

--CHOICE

"Horowitz's study is primarily an intellectual one, and he ends it by calling for an investigation into the sociology and social history of the happiness movement's users and consumers. Indeed, now that he has laid the groundwork with this thorough intellectual history of the movement, scholars can turn their efforts to understanding how Americans used what they learned in happiness-oriented therapies, training, and books."

--The American Historical Review

"Horowitz helps us see the extensive reach of psychology into American lives. And he raises the provocative question of whether happiness studies have really made us happier or whether they have lulled us into the false sense that social reforms are unnecessary."

--Journal of American History

"Happier contributes to a rethinking of how to periodize the history of psychology. [Horowitz's] analysis suggests psychology underwent an effective revolution around the turn of this century. The history of this effective revolution remains unwritten, but Happier along with other recent titles is suggestive of its broad contours. As such, the book is essential reading for historians of psychology."

--Journal of The History of the Behavioral Sciences

Book Description

Provides the first history of the origins, development, and impact of the shift in how Americans - and now many around the world - consider the human condition.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (December 6, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 019065564X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190655648
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.23 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 1.3 x 6.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

Customer reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
3.3 out of 5
7 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Marc Effron
3.0 out of 5 stars Academics and psychologists should love it
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2018
Verified Purchase
It's a behind the scenes guide to how the happiness movement evolved, but it's a bit "inside baseball" for those less interested in the academic egos and history that birthed this movement and more interested in how this movement has fooled so many people with such scant evidence of its effectiveness.
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Gary Moreau, Author
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating history of our collective pursuit of happiness: now for the hard part
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2017
Verified Purchase
I bought this book by somewhat of a mistake even though the title is very clear that it is a book of history and the author certainly makes good on the promise. Nonetheless, after a brief hesitation I read it anyway and am very glad I did.

For anyone interested in the history of the happiness and positive psychology movements the book is definitive, and, I would hazard to guess, without peer. And as is always the case, although I admit to needing the reminder, history is informative beyond the facts and figures. It helps us to understand the subject in new and different ways that can only be truly developed with the benefit of hindsight.

The writing is very good and, to use one of the author’s own terms, accessible. It is disciplined enough, I suspect, to satisfy the scholar, but written with enough color to hold the interest of virtually every reader. No scholarly suffix required.

The challenge in condensing history as Horowitz does here is rising above it. Horowitz has an opinion, as all of us do, but I think he is quite successful in keeping his in check in the interest of a full and fair recount of the field’s development. I think that’s particularly praise-worthy given the highly personal and seductively optimistic nature of the subject matter.

And, in a way, that personal nature speaks to the inherent risk with positive psychology and happiness. It’s one thing to study psychological illness and suffering. When we turn the lens in the direction of development and well-being, however, the line between science and hopeful speculation is easy to cross. The origin of illness and the misery of abuse or trauma are naturally impersonal. Happiness, on the other hand, couldn’t be more personal.

Horowitz suggests, and it is no surprise, therefore, that positive psychology to date has followed a self-centric model with an emphasis on character, opportunity, enterprise, and resiliency. And in no facet of the field has the neoliberal, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps perspective been more enthusiastically pursued than in the corporate training room.

Speaking from my own four decades of corporate experience, however, I believe that the self-centric, take-charge-of-your-future perspective could not be more misaligned with the current reality of the workplace. The disillusionment currently found there is far less a function of insecurity than it is a total loss of trust. It is trust, and the perceived sense of obligation it was built upon, that was the foundation of past American commercial greatness.

And it’s gone. And it’s gone for a lot of reason I won’t go into here. The point is, however, that it was jettisoned by structural and procedural changes that are themselves systematic and impersonal. Even the most altruistic leaders cannot reinstate it without structural changes in organizational process that are beyond the purview of experts in self-centric positive psychology.

In the closing pages of the book Horowitz notes: “The generous funding of positive psychology and studies of happiness meant implicitly reinforcing the fields’ various ideological proclivities: their focus on personalism, their assumption that it was preferable to enhance subjective well-being by positivity rather than by changes in social structures, or their emphasis on an often conservative version of character formation.”

It is, however, our social, business, and political structures that are at the heart of our collective insecurity and disillusionment. Advances in technology, globalism, and the knowledge gained through advances in science, have all created a world in which we can no longer treat business, society, politics, or even religion, as separate and discrete spheres of influence.

The historical conventions, protocols, and institutions that have been used to manage these once distinct spheres of life are all built on the preeminence of the individual self. That will ultimately have to change. Business, as but one example, must re-evaluate and transform the self-centric systems it currently uses to manage and develop people and allocate power and authority. Similar changes will have to take place in the political and social arenas. (It is the way in which power is allocated that is behind the abuse of women that technology has now forced us to face.)

Positive psychology, it seems to me, has a unique opportunity to lead the way. It has the tools and the perspective to lead us forward to a new era of mutual trust and collective opportunity. It will, however, have to broaden its scope and perspective. The answer is we, not I.

This is a very good book, well worth your time. I only hope Mr. Horowitz comes out with a sequel that documents the transformation of positive psychology itself. We will all be better off. (Which might mean happier. After sixty plus years I’m still working on that puzzle.)
13 people found this helpful
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Braco Pobric
5.0 out of 5 stars In this comprehensive history of Positive Psychology, Daniel Horowitz ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2017
In this comprehensive history of Positive Psychology, Daniel Horowitz digs deep into this new movement, predecessors, field icons and beneficiaries. He goes even further and describes many researches from the field. Mr. Horowitz gives us facts and let us decide what, if anything we want to get out of this relatively new movement.
3 people found this helpful
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