LA Review of Books: Three Books on Happiness

Barry Schwartz, professor of social theory and social action, wrote an essay for the LA Review of Books on The Myths of Happiness, Love 2.0 and Happy Money - three books that address the ideology of happiness in vastly different ways.

Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice and The Costs of Living, provided a detailed review of each book, saying "the reason people need to be told explicitly about the ideas in these books is that they have embraced an ideology that contradicts almost all of them. This ideology is a false god, but it doesn't matter that it's false, because if people believe it, they live their lives and shape their social institutions in a way that is consistent with it. Correcting ideology is a tall order - one that these books don't really take on."