Stop feeling bad if your country consistently does poorly in the World Happiness Review and similar; in fact, if anyone tells you some nation is happier than another, throw this book at them.

I wanted this galley specifically because Zimbabwe consistently scores poorly whenever national happiness is measured, and because I find the idea of happiness indexes very suspect, even if they are a good counter to only using GDP to measure national progress. This book helps enormously to make sense of all my scoffing.

With arguments “against happiness” from a multidisciplinary perspective, the authors examine the concept of happiness from concepts in philosophy (Aristotelian eudaimonia etc) to definitions of happiness and well-being across cultures. They examine various ways of measuring “happiness” (infamously, “Did you smile yesterday?” as one of the questions used) and the problems therein—the danger of creating a tool that works in one’s own culture, that may not be applicable in another. I particularly enjoyed the sections on how data is collected and the explanations of the flaws in those methods (such as self-reporting); too often, happiness reports seem scientific, and it is useful to have specific and scientific criticisms of them.

Against Happiness is a very thorough examination of the happiness “agenda”, even including critical responses at the end of the book (I particularly appreciated Jeanne L. Tsai’s essay). I am very glad to have my copious notes from it as a reference for when I argue Zimbabwe’s—and many other “Global South” nations’—case against happiness as a measure of well-being, and our consistent humiliation when those reports are released.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Columbia University Press for this ARC.

An interesting book, whose premise runs against the grain of pop-psychology beliefs about the purpose of life. I enjoyed the arguments made by the essays in this book. If the belief that life should be all about chasing happiness doesn't quite sit right with you and you're not sure why - read this! It'll help.

While I did not agree with each of the writers, having the opportunity to hear and learn from such a diverse range of thinkers is quite valuable. This is a topic of great value in our time and this is a worthy contribution to the discussion.