Minuteman Library Network / All Locations

Skip to content

Minuteman Library Network

Catalog Home Page

简体中文 | 繁體中文 | Español | Français | Português | Русский

Save to My Lists

Back to Results

Previous Record Next Record

Resources

Book Cover

Title	America the anxious : how our pursuit of happiness is creating a nation of nervous wrecks / Ruth Whippman.
Author	Whippman, Ruth,
Publication Info.	New York : St. Martin's Press, 2016.
Edition	First U.S. edition.
Description	247 pages ; 22 cm
	text txt rdacontent

Rate It	Rating

Library	Call No.	STATUS ( What's This?)
ACTON/Adult	306.0973 W575	AVAILABLE
ASHLAND/Adult	306 WHI	AVAILABLE
BEDFORD/Adult	306.09/Whi	AVAILABLE
BELMONT/BEECH ST/Adult	306.09 WHI	STORAGE
BROOKLINE/Adult	306 Whippman 2016	AVAILABLE
CAMBRIDGE/Adult	306.0973 Whippman	AVAILABLE
CONCORD/Adult	306.0973 Whippman	AVAILABLE
CONCORD/FOWLER/Adult	306.0973 Whippman	AVAILABLE
FRAMINGHAM/Adult	306.0973 Whippman	AVAILABLE
FRANKLIN/Adult	306.09 WHI 2016	AVAILABLE

More Information

ISBN	9781250071521 (hardcover)
	1250071526 (hardcover)
	1250146054
	9781250146052
Standard No.	40026532336
	St Martins Pr, C/O Mps 16365 James Madison Hwy Us Hwy 15, Gordonsville, VA, USA, 22942, (212)6745151 SAN 631-5011
Bibliography	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents	Coming to America: obsessed with happiness, but nobody's happy -- Personal journey? it's not all about you -- Happiness for sale: self-help America -- Workaholics -- "I don't care as long as he's happy": dispatches from the parenting happiness rat race -- God's plan of happiness -- I'm not a happy person, I just play one on facebook -- Positive psychology (or if you're not happy, it's your own fault, you lazy schmuck) -- Star-spangled happy.
Summary	Are you happy? Right now? Happy enough? As happy as everyone else? Could you be happier if you tried harder? After she packed up her British worldview (that most things were basically rubbish) and moved to America, journalist and documentary filmmaker Ruth Whippman found herself increasingly perplexed by the American obsession with one topic above all others: happiness. The subject came up everywhere: at the playground swings, at the meat counter in the supermarket, and even -- legs in stirrups -- at the gynecologist. The omnipresence of these happiness conversations (trading tips, humble-bragging successes, offering unsolicited advice) wouldn't let her go, and so Ruth did some digging. What she found was a paradox: despite the fact that Americans spend more time and money in search of happiness than any other nation on earth, research shows that the United States is one of the least contented, most anxious countries in the developed world. Stoked by a multi-billion dollar “happiness industrial complex” intent on selling the promise of bliss, America appeared to be driving itself crazy in pursuit of contentment. So Ruth set out on to get to the bottom of this contradiction, embarking on an pilgrimage to investigate how this national obsession infiltrates all areas of life, from religion to parenting, the workplace to academia. She attends a controversial self-help course that promises total transformation, where she learns all her problems are all her own fault; visits a “happiness city” in the Nevada desert and explores why it has one of the highest suicide rates in America; delves into the darker truths behind the influential academic “positive psychology movement”; and ventures to Utah to spend time with the Mormons, officially America’s happiest people.
Subject	National characteristics, American.
	Happiness -- United States.
	United States -- Civilization -- 21st century.
	United States -- Social conditions -- 21st century.
OCLC/Vendor #	953738325

ISBN	9781250071521 (hardcover)
	1250071526 (hardcover)
	1250146054
	9781250146052
Standard No.	40026532336
	St Martins Pr, C/O Mps 16365 James Madison Hwy Us Hwy 15, Gordonsville, VA, USA, 22942, (212)6745151 SAN 631-5011
Bibliography	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents	Coming to America: obsessed with happiness, but nobody's happy -- Personal journey? it's not all about you -- Happiness for sale: self-help America -- Workaholics -- "I don't care as long as he's happy": dispatches from the parenting happiness rat race -- God's plan of happiness -- I'm not a happy person, I just play one on facebook -- Positive psychology (or if you're not happy, it's your own fault, you lazy schmuck) -- Star-spangled happy.
Summary	Are you happy? Right now? Happy enough? As happy as everyone else? Could you be happier if you tried harder? After she packed up her British worldview (that most things were basically rubbish) and moved to America, journalist and documentary filmmaker Ruth Whippman found herself increasingly perplexed by the American obsession with one topic above all others: happiness. The subject came up everywhere: at the playground swings, at the meat counter in the supermarket, and even -- legs in stirrups -- at the gynecologist. The omnipresence of these happiness conversations (trading tips, humble-bragging successes, offering unsolicited advice) wouldn't let her go, and so Ruth did some digging. What she found was a paradox: despite the fact that Americans spend more time and money in search of happiness than any other nation on earth, research shows that the United States is one of the least contented, most anxious countries in the developed world. Stoked by a multi-billion dollar “happiness industrial complex” intent on selling the promise of bliss, America appeared to be driving itself crazy in pursuit of contentment. So Ruth set out on to get to the bottom of this contradiction, embarking on an pilgrimage to investigate how this national obsession infiltrates all areas of life, from religion to parenting, the workplace to academia. She attends a controversial self-help course that promises total transformation, where she learns all her problems are all her own fault; visits a “happiness city” in the Nevada desert and explores why it has one of the highest suicide rates in America; delves into the darker truths behind the influential academic “positive psychology movement”; and ventures to Utah to spend time with the Mormons, officially America’s happiest people.
Subject	National characteristics, American.
	Happiness -- United States.
	United States -- Civilization -- 21st century.
	United States -- Social conditions -- 21st century.
OCLC/Vendor #	953738325