![]() ![]() Though this book is wide-ranging, Jennifer Hecht gets right to the point in describing the kinds of happiness she wants to explore, and the reasons we seem to know so much about happiness, yet don’t really experience it reliably. There is so much to admire in this book, and like her previous book on trends in religious questioning through the ages ( Doubt: A History) Jennifer Hecht takes us on a whirlwind tour through history and across continents to ask: What has made humans happy in the past? What ideas were fads of the moment, and what ideas transcended their time to prove themselves worthy? How do celebrations, health and beauty, money, and drugs really correlate to happiness in the grand arc of human history (instead of in the tiny snapshot of our current ideas and fads)? What do philosophers, historians, and mythologists know about enduring happiness, and what current ideas about happiness look very suspicious, considering the lessons of the past? The Three Kinds of Happiness ![]() If you’re feeling troubled about the current state of the world, and confused by what seems like weekly changes to scientific theories about happiness, this book is just what the doctor ordered. The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think is Right is Wrong. Right now, I’m re-reading an amazing book by the historian, philosopher, poet, and funny kook Jennifer Michael Hecht. ![]()
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