{"product_id":"the-happiness-industry-william-davies-9781784780951","title":"The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Deeply researched and pithily argued.\" --\u003ci\u003eNew York Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"A brilliant, and sometimes eerie, dissection\" of 'the science of happiness' and the modern-day commercialization of our most private emotions (\u003ci\u003eVice\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhy are we so obsessed with measuring happiness?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In winter 2014, a Tibetan monk lectured the world leaders gathered at Davos on the importance of Happiness. The recent DSM-5, the manual of all diagnosable mental illnesses, for the first time included shyness and grief as treatable diseases. Happiness has become the biggest idea of our age, a new religion dedicated to well-being. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Here, political economist William Davies shows how this philosophy, first pronounced by Jeremy Bentham in the 1780s, has dominated the political debates that have delivered neoliberalism. From a history of business strategies of how to get the best out of employees, to the increased level of surveillance measuring every aspect of our lives; from why experts prefer to measure the chemical in the brain than ask you how you are feeling, to why \u003ci\u003eFreakonomics\u003c\/i\u003e tells us less about the way people behave than expected, \u003ci\u003eThe Happiness Industry \u003c\/i\u003eis an essential guide to the marketization of modern life. Davies shows that the science of happiness is less a science than an extension of hyper-capitalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e William Davies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1784780952\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781784780951\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Verso\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/14\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.70h x 5.10w x 0.90d","brand":"William Davies","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43984303128831,"sku":"9781784780951","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_f694af01-3a83-46a5-aa53-be5f461d60c2.jpg?v=1683271613","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-happiness-industry-william-davies-9781784780951","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}