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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.