A historian of emotions re-examines our modern-day pursuit of happiness
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, modern urban, industrial, affluent societies have made great strides towards fixing some of the problems that plagued other societies for centuries: food shortages are nearly eliminated, infant and maternal mortality has fallen dramatically, birth control is both readily available and effective, education levels are higher, and internal violence is significantly reduced. Modernity’s blessings are many and bountiful—but has modernity really made us happy?
Satisfaction Not Guaranteed is a book about the modern condition, and why the gains of living in modern urban, industrial, affluent societies have not proved more satisfying than they have. It examines why real results that paralleled earlier anticipations of progress have not generated the ease and contentment that the same forecasters assumed would apply to modern life. Employing his trademark inquiry of emotions in American history, Peter N. Stearns asks why, if modern life has been generally characterized by measurable themes of progress, abundance, and improvement, are people not happier or more content with their lot in life? Why is there an increased incidence of psychological depression, anxiety, and the sense that no one has ever reached a pinnacle of happiness or contentment? It’s not so much that modernity went wrong, but rather that it has not gone as swimmingly as was anticipated. Satisfaction Not Guaranteed uses concrete examples from both history and the present, such as happiness surveys, to discuss how as a society we might better juggle the demands of modern life with the pursuit of happiness.
"Recommended [for] all levels/libraries." - CHOICE
"Satisfaction Not Guaranteed impresses on many levels...Stearns doesn't oversimplify." - Popmatters
"In eight elegant, wide-ranging essays, the historian Peter N. Stearns explores answers to the question he considers the fundamental dilemma of modernity." - TLS
"Sneezing and yawning, Provine notes, can provide "satisfaction" (yawning apparently can even trigger orgasm in some people: try this at home) which is just as well, since little else in life today does. Given the enormous advances over the last few centuries in agriculture, medicine, education and so forth, this author asks, why aren't we happier in our "modern condition"? The "satisfaction gap", Stearns argues, arises from various factors not yet eliminated by modernising forces (major stressors such as war) or actually created by them: the disorienting effects of constant change; the monstrous hegemony of clock time; the cruel injunction to be happy; meaningless and oversupervised work in modern jobs; medicalised death; anxiety over "correct" child-rearing; and the inability of shopping really to help. The book is dry but interestingly nuanced, encouraging us to see our flawed modernity as a "work in progress". In Victorian times, Stearns relates, "Nervous middle-class people now learned that having sex too often, possibly more than once a week, could induce premature death or insanity." One hopes that at least they yawned a lot." - The Guardian
"Satisfaction Not Guaranteed impresses on many levels. First, despite the fact that it is explaining why Americans arent happy, the book isnt at all depressing. Second, Stearns doesnt oversimplify (although the tone, at times, might be a little academic). To Stearns, consumption isnt simply a sign that 21st century Americans are greedier than previous generations. Stearns looks at the history of consumption and discusses issues such as boredom, product innovation, and changes in shopping venues...And because of this, the final message of the book seems to be that happiness is not lostAmericans just need to rethink progress and modernity in order to find it again." - PopMatters
"[Stearns] leaves the reader of Satisfaction Not Guaranteed with the hope that we continue to search for and have a richer palette of personal goals" in our lives." - Fairfax Connection
Формат: Скан PDf
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, modern urban, industrial, affluent societies have made great strides towards fixing some of the problems that plagued other societies for centuries: food shortages are nearly eliminated, infant and maternal mortality has fallen dramatically, birth control is both readily available and effective, education levels are higher, and internal violence is significantly reduced. Modernity’s blessings are many and bountiful—but has modernity really made us happy?
Satisfaction Not Guaranteed is a book about the modern condition, and why the gains of living in modern urban, industrial, affluent societies have not proved more satisfying than they have. It examines why real results that paralleled earlier anticipations of progress have not generated the ease and contentment that the same forecasters assumed would apply to modern life. Employing his trademark inquiry of emotions in American history, Peter N. Stearns asks why, if modern life has been generally characterized by measurable themes of progress, abundance, and improvement, are people not happier or more content with their lot in life? Why is there an increased incidence of psychological depression, anxiety, and the sense that no one has ever reached a pinnacle of happiness or contentment? It’s not so much that modernity went wrong, but rather that it has not gone as swimmingly as was anticipated. Satisfaction Not Guaranteed uses concrete examples from both history and the present, such as happiness surveys, to discuss how as a society we might better juggle the demands of modern life with the pursuit of happiness.
"Recommended [for] all levels/libraries." - CHOICE
"Satisfaction Not Guaranteed impresses on many levels...Stearns doesn't oversimplify." - Popmatters
"In eight elegant, wide-ranging essays, the historian Peter N. Stearns explores answers to the question he considers the fundamental dilemma of modernity." - TLS
"Sneezing and yawning, Provine notes, can provide "satisfaction" (yawning apparently can even trigger orgasm in some people: try this at home) which is just as well, since little else in life today does. Given the enormous advances over the last few centuries in agriculture, medicine, education and so forth, this author asks, why aren't we happier in our "modern condition"? The "satisfaction gap", Stearns argues, arises from various factors not yet eliminated by modernising forces (major stressors such as war) or actually created by them: the disorienting effects of constant change; the monstrous hegemony of clock time; the cruel injunction to be happy; meaningless and oversupervised work in modern jobs; medicalised death; anxiety over "correct" child-rearing; and the inability of shopping really to help. The book is dry but interestingly nuanced, encouraging us to see our flawed modernity as a "work in progress". In Victorian times, Stearns relates, "Nervous middle-class people now learned that having sex too often, possibly more than once a week, could induce premature death or insanity." One hopes that at least they yawned a lot." - The Guardian
"Satisfaction Not Guaranteed impresses on many levels. First, despite the fact that it is explaining why Americans arent happy, the book isnt at all depressing. Second, Stearns doesnt oversimplify (although the tone, at times, might be a little academic). To Stearns, consumption isnt simply a sign that 21st century Americans are greedier than previous generations. Stearns looks at the history of consumption and discusses issues such as boredom, product innovation, and changes in shopping venues...And because of this, the final message of the book seems to be that happiness is not lostAmericans just need to rethink progress and modernity in order to find it again." - PopMatters
"[Stearns] leaves the reader of Satisfaction Not Guaranteed with the hope that we continue to search for and have a richer palette of personal goals" in our lives." - Fairfax Connection
Формат: Скан PDf
https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/satisfaction-not-guaranteed-dilemmas-of-progress-in-modern-society.html