The Happiness Myth - by Jennifer Hecht (Paperback)

About the Book

Historian Hecht looks at contemporary happiness advice and, with a newfound historical perspective, liberates readers from the scolding, quasi-scientific messages that insist there is a formula for happiness and offers real lessons that have stood the test of time.

From the Back Cover

Jennifer Michael Hecht explodes the myths about happiness, liberating us from the message that there's only one way to care for our hearts, minds, and bodies.

Review Quotes

"Maybe it just takes someone as good on doubt--indeed our finest historian of hesitation--to force us to second-guess everything we thought we knew about happiness, and somehow still to make us so downright happy while doing so. Jennifer Michael Hecht's is a profound and lucid romp of a book." - Lawrence Weschler, director of the NY Institute for the Humanities at NYU, and author of Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences and Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder
"Alongside its witty parody of our half-baked wishes, The Happiness Myth is a beautiful history and meditation about the best that we humans have thought and said on this elusive subject, happiness. Amazingly, the book itself gives both joy and comfort through the very act of examining our yearnings." - Ann Snitow, Professor, The New School University and co author of The Feminist Memoir Project: Voices From Women's Liberation and Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality.
"History teaches us, contrary to popular belief, that money can buy happiness, drugs are mostly good, low-fat diets may not prevent cancer or heart disease. [Jennifer Hecht's] energetic romp through the arbitrariness of history's ideas about happiness is eclectic and entertaining, providing ample perspective on the rituals that make us human." - Publishers Weekly
"Hecht proves a beguiling writer blessed with a most agile mind. Her conclusions are often blunt (surprise! Money can buy happiness) and also practical. She offers suggestions that can conceivably help make a happier life, but her good judgment, common sense, and insightful commentary make the book a pleasure not only to read but also to ponder." - Booklist
"A provocative, well-researched cultural history that will certainly make readers rethink their assumptions about what constitutes happiness. What makes this book unique is [Hecht's] fearless irreverence." - Library Journal
"Among the raft of happiness books published lately, this one is the obvious standout. I suggest climbing aboard." - Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Several recent books by researchers address this topic, but my skeptic's eye found a historian's long-view analysis to be ultimately the most enlightening. . . . [Hecht's] deep and thoughtful historical perspective demonstrates just how time and culture-dependant is all this happiness research." - Michael Shermer, Scientific American
"Deep and thoughtful." - Michael Shermer, Scientific American
"Of all the books on happiness of the past few years, I think The Happiness Myth is the most insightful and satisfying. Besides being packed with fascinating information and written in a style that is a pleaure to read, it does three things that might actually increase your happiness: it challenges preconceptions, it alleviates guilt, and it steadily cheers you up. I feel happier already for having read it." - Alix Kates Shulman, author of Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen
"Hecht's curiosity ranges widely, and the breadth of her learning is impressive... Fresh and daring analysis." - Washington Post
"Exposing the half-baked fads of the present by illuminating the even less-baked ones of the past can be a lot of fun, and Hecht, a historian and a poet, entertains us with the some classics." - New York Times Book Review
"The Happiness Myth reads like your favorite college teacher on caffeine - stimulating, alert, but also demanding your keenest attention... among the raft of happiness books published lately, this one is the obvious standout. I suggest climbing aboard." - Cleveland Plain Dealer