Lawrence R. Samuel
Teoksen The End of the Innocence: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair tekijä
Tietoja tekijästä
Lawrence (Larry) R. Samuel is the founder of AmeriCulture, a consultancy based out of Miami and New York that is dedicated to translating the emerging cultural landscape into business opportunities. He has been a leading culture consultant to Fortune 500 companies and blue-chip advertising agencies näytä lisää since 1990, including Anheuser-Busch, Baskin-Robbins, Chase, Cond Nast, General Mills, Hasbro, John Hancock, Liberty Mutual, L. L, Bean, and Whirlpool. Samuel is a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of many books, including Rich: The Rise and Fall of American Wealth Culture (2009) and Boomers 3.0: Marketing to Baby Boomers in Their Third Act of Life (2017). näytä vähemmän
Tekijän teokset
Freud on Madison Avenue: Motivation Research and Subliminal Advertising in America (2010) 8 kappaletta
The American Writer : Literary Life in the United States from the 1920s to the Present (2017) 3 kappaletta
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- male
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Tilastot
- Teokset
- 23
- Jäseniä
- 178
- Suosituimmuussija
- #120,889
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 3.1
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 2
- ISBN:t
- 59
Jefferson's premise in the Declaration of Independence that all men have the right to the "pursuit of happiness" is the springboard not only for this book but the entire enterprise of finding happiness in America. The author focuses on the past century and its quest for happiness as described in sociological studies and popular literature on the subject.
The result is a mostly depressing series of repetitions: Americans yearn for happiness, act as if they are happy, but are often unhappy; America often is not among the happiest nations; Americans are sure that happiness should come from having money or a certain lifestyle, and are flustered to continually learn that such things do not guarantee happiness; marketers and salesmen attempt to figure out what makes people happy, and more importantly how to frame products as necessary for happiness without ever fully satisfying; some wonder if happiness can ever be pinned down to any significant degree, wonder if the way we go about trying to find happiness is the problem; one even considered happiness to be a pathological condition!
In the end the emoticon on the front of the book says it all: after reading the book one is no closer to understanding happiness, although one has gained much about the Sisyphean efforts Americans put into attempting to obtain happiness through various self-help measures.
In the epilogue the author shows his cards, suggesting happiness is really an emotion one cannot control or expect to have all the time, commends joy, and gives a positivist-Stoicist list of 12 character principles and virtues which lead to joy. And so the author succumbs to the same temptations as he has documented in everyone else over the past century: an attempt to reduce a subjective moving target to a self-help checklist. Ironic.
It is an illuminating investigation into the cult of happiness in America, even if it does end up being a depressing narrative.
**-galley received as part of early review program… (lisätietoja)