Download books » Biographies, Memoirs » Download EPUB The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America

The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America

The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
Date: February 13th, 2024
ISBN: 1668002477
Language: English
Number of pages: 368 pages
Format: EPUB
A fascinating examination of what "the pursuit of happiness" meant to our nation's Founders and how that famous phrase defined their lives and became the foundation of our democracy.

The Declaration of Independence identified "the pursuit of happiness" as one of our unalienable rights, along with life and liberty. Jeffrey Rosen, the president of the National Constitution Center, profiles six of the most influential founders—Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton—to show what pursuing happiness meant in their lives.

By reading the classical Greek and Roman moral philosophers who inspired the Founders, Rosen shows us how they understood the pursuit of happiness as a quest for being good, not feeling good—the pursuit of lifelong virtue, not short-term pleasure. Among those virtues were the habits of industry, temperance, moderation, and sincerity, which the Founders viewed as part of a daily struggle for self-improvement, character development, and calm self-mastery. They believed that political self-government required personal self-government. For all six Founders, the pursuit of virtue was incompatible with enslavement of African Americans, although the Virginians betrayed their own principles.

The Pursuit of Happiness is more than an elucidation of the Declaration's famous phrase; it is a revelatory journey into the minds of the Founders, and a deep, rich, and fresh understanding of the foundation of our democracy.

Download The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America




Resolve captcha to access download link!

Information
Users of Guests are not allowed to comment this publication.
RSS
2019-2024. All books on the site are laid out only for informational purposes.