Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime: Political Theory in Literature

Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime: Political Theory in Literature

Amato, Elizabeth

Hardcover

Series: Politics, Literature, & Film

Literary CriticismGeneral Political Science

ISBN10: 1498554199
ISBN13: 9781498554190
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: Feb 28 2018
Pages: 198
Weight: 1.00
Height: 0.90 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
The Declaration of Independence claims that individuals need liberty to pursue happiness, but provides little guidance on the what of happiness. Happiness studies and liberal theory are incomplete guides. Happiness studies offer insights into what makes people happy but happiness policy risks becoming doctrinaire. Liberal theory is better on personal liberty, but weak on the what of happiness. My argument is that American novelists are surer guides on the pursuit of happiness. Treated as political thinkers, my book offers a close reading of four American novelists, Tom Wolfe, Walker Percy, Edith Wharton, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and their critique of the pursuit of happiness. With a critical and friendly eye, they present the shortcomings of pursuing happiness in a liberal nation but also present alternatives and correctives possible in America. Our novelists point us toward each other in friendship as our greatest resource to guide us towards happiness.

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