This book explores happiness research and liberal theory. It treats four American novelists as political thinkers through close textual analysis of their novels. This book concludes that friendship is the real basis of happiness and that it is an alternative to the individualistic pursuit of happiness.

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Understanding the American Pursuit of Happiness
• 2 Tom Wolfe’s Status-Hungry America
• 3 Walker Percy’s Search
• 4 Edith Wharton’s Case for Happiness and Society
• 5 Hawthorne’s Hope for Friendship and Happiness
• 6 Sharing the Pursuit of Happiness
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author