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

by Daniel Horowitz

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.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2017

About the author

Daniel Horowitz is a historian whose work focuses on the history of consumer culture and social criticism in the U.S. At Smith College (1989–2012), he directed the American studies program for 18 years and was, for a time, Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Professor of American Studies. Before coming to Smith, he taught at Scripps College in Claremont, California (1972–88), where he eventually was Nathaniel Wright Stephenson Professor of History and Biography.
For 2010–11, he was the Ray A. Billington Visiting Professor of U.S. History at Occidental College and Huntington Library. He has also taught at the University of Michigan (1983–84), Carleton College (1980), Harvard (1964–66 and 1967–70), Skidmore College (1970–72), and Wellesley College (1966–67).
Among the honors Horowitz has received are two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and one from the National Humanities Center; an appointment as Honorary Visiting Fellow at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Harvard University; and for 2008–09 he received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 1997, the American Studies Association awarded him the Constance Rourke Prize for his 1996 article “Rethinking Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique: Labor Union Radicalism and Feminism in Cold War America,” American Quarterly. The American Studies Association awarded him its 2003 Mary C. Turpie Prize for “outstanding abilities and achievement in American Studies teaching, advising, and program development at the local or regional level.”
Among his publications are The Morality of Spending: Attitudes Toward the Consumer Society in America, 1875–1940 (1985), selected by Choice as one of the outstanding academic books of 1985; Vance Packard and American Social Criticism (1994); Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique: The American Left, The Cold War, Modern Feminism (1998); The Anxieties of Affluence: Critiques of American Consumer Culture, 1939–1979 (2004), selected by Choice as one of the outstanding books of 2004 and winner of the Eugene M. Kayden Prize for the best book published in the humanities in 2004 by a university press; Consuming Pleasures: Intellectuals and Popular Culture in the Postwar World (2012); On the Cusp: Yale College Class of 1960 and a World on the Verge of Change (2015); and Happier?: The History of A Cultural Movement That Aspired to Transform America (2018).
His book on the Reality TV show “Shark Tank” will be published by University of North Carolina Press in late 2020. He has edited two books for Bedford: Suburban Life in the 1950s: Selections from Vance Packard’s Status Seekers (1995) and Jimmy Carter and the Energy Crisis of the 1970: The “Crisis of Confidence” Speech of July 15, 1979.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was on the New Books shelf at the library when I went to pick up my holds. I read it very quickly - a ton of notes so it’s deceptive & not as long as it seems at first. This isn’t my kind of book (science research that reads like a scientific paper) - but the topic of Positive Psychology interests me. I’m a huge Alan Watts fan & I loved the brief section on his influence. Glad I picked it up.

[Gary Moreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 reasons 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 into 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.)

[Robert Bogue]

One of the things that I deeply respect is people who are willing to do the reading and research necessary to have a complete and balanced view of a topic. That’s what I found in Daniel Horowitz’ Happier?: The History of a Cultural Movement That Aspired to Transform America. It’s no secret that Horowitz isn’t impressed with the movement towards creating a happier America just from the title; however, if you’re trying to map how our focus on happiness evolved, he’s done a great job.

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[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't really recommend unless you have a specific reason for wanting to understand the history of the positive psychology movement - I don't think it is engaging or well-written enough to be a general interest read. That said, as a person who does have a specific reason for wanting to understand the history of the positive psychology movement, it was helpful in pointing to major figures, ideas, funding sources, and controversies within the movement.

[Mills College Library]

306.0973 H8166 2018