Satisfaction Not Guaranteed : Dilemmas of Progress in Modern Society / Peter N. Stearns.
2012
CB430 .S74 2012
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Online Access
Details
Title
Satisfaction Not Guaranteed : Dilemmas of Progress in Modern Society / Peter N. Stearns.
Author
Stearns, Peter N., author.
ISBN
9780814783634
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2012
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Other Standard Identifiers
10.18574/nyu/9780814783627.001.0001 doi
Call Number
CB430 .S74 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
909.83
Summary
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.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780814783627
Linked Resources
Online Access
Record Appears in
Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
All Resources
Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part I. The Modern and the Happy
2. The Gap
3. Component Parts
Part II. Maladjustments in Modernity
4. Modernity's Deficiencies
5. False Starts and Surprises
6. The Dilemmas of Work in Modernity
Part III. Great Expectations
7. Death as a Modern Quandary
8. Century of the Child?
9. Born to Shop
Conclusion
Notes
Index
About the Author
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part I. The Modern and the Happy
2. The Gap
3. Component Parts
Part II. Maladjustments in Modernity
4. Modernity's Deficiencies
5. False Starts and Surprises
6. The Dilemmas of Work in Modernity
Part III. Great Expectations
7. Death as a Modern Quandary
8. Century of the Child?
9. Born to Shop
Conclusion
Notes
Index
About the Author