HAPPINESS IN AMERICA: A CULTURAL HISTORY is, as the title makes clear, a cultural history of happiness in the United States. No such book exists, a surprising thing given the prominent role that the idea and pursuit of happiness has played in this country since we became a country. Much interest currently revolves around happiness in America, so much so that one could reasonably argue that there is a "happiness movement" afoot. HAPPINESS IN AMERICA fills this literary and scholarly gap by charting the course of happiness within American culture over the past century, something that is sure to attract significant media attention and appeal to many readers. The wide range of arenas in which happiness intersects reflects the subject's centrality in everyday life in America these past one hundred years. Happiness overlaps with psychology, science, religion and spirituality, business, medicine and health, relationships, philosophy, sociology, child raising, and politics, making the work truly multi- and interdisciplinary. Rather than follow a linear path, happiness has bobbed and weaved over the decades, HAPPINESS IN AMERICA shows, its arc or trajectory a twisting and unpredictable one. Happiness has also both shaped and reflected our core values, with its expression at any given time a key indicator of who we are as a people. The book thus adds a missing and valuable piece to our understanding of American culture, and will be recognized as a seminal resource dedicated to all things happiness. Beyond serving as the definitive guide to happiness in this country, HAPPINESS IN AMERICA offers readers a provocative argument that challenges standard thinking. Despite popular belief, Americans have never been a particularly happy people, the work demonstrates, with abundant anecdotal evidence and hard research backing up that bold claim. Our perpetual (and futile) search for happiness indicates widespread dissatisfaction and discontent with life in general, something that will come as a surprise to many. The image of Americans as a happy-go-lucky people is thus more mythology than reality, an important finding rooted in the inherent flaws of consumer capitalism. Our competitive and comparative American Way of Life has not proven to be an especially good formula for happiness, I argue, with external signs of success unlikely to produce appreciably happier people. Rather, happiness has more often come from being in and appreciating the moment, HAPPINESS IN AMERICA shows, an idea that has major implications for how all of us might approach our lives in the future.