Darrin M. McMahon

An intellectual history of the modern concept of happiness in human life which maintains that a change in human expectations took place during the Enlightenment which made happiness a motivating ideal.

A History

Happiness

Ilahi Gazap

Ryan Patrick Hanley

More than any earlier period of European intellectual history, the age of Enlightenment infused the republic of letters with social and political significance; this long-awaited new collection from Routledge brings together in five volumes the very best scholarship on the period and its legacy. It also incorporates historical and critical essays addressed to the Enlightenment' s alleged responsibility for institutions or policies prevalent in the twentieth century, including economic globalization and the Holocaust.

Critical Concepts in Historical Studies

The Enlightenment

"Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, Darrin M. McMahon shows that well before the French Revolution, enemies of the Enlightenment were warning that the secular thrust of modern philosophy would give way to horrors of an unprecedented kind. Greeting 1789, in turn, as the realization of their worst fears, they fought the Revolution from its onset, profoundly affecting its subsequent course. The radicalization - and violence - of the Revolution was as much the product of militant resistance as any inherent logic."--BOOK JACKET.

The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity

Enemies of the Enlightenment

Joyce E. Chaplin

The essays in this volume seek to examine the uses to which concepts of genius have been put in different cultures and times. Collectively, they are designed to make two new statements. First, seen in historical and comparative perspective, genius is not a natural fact and universal human constant that has been only recently identified by modern science, but instead a categorical mode of assessing human ability and merit. Second, as a concept with specific definitions and resonances, genius has performed specific cultural work within each of the societies in which it had a historical presence.

Genealogies of Genius

A Tale of Two Enlightenments

Edmund Burke and the Literary Cabal

Happiness and its pursuit have been a constant source of fascination and attraction for thousands of years. In ancient Greek tragedy, happiness was considered a gift of the gods, now we consider it a right. Why did this change and what does it tell us about our society? In The Pursuit of Happiness, cultural historian Darrin McMahon offers a brilliant summation of the history of happiness, and its evolution from divine gift to natural human entitlement. Central to the development of Christianity, ideas of happiness assumed their modern form during the Enlightenment, and McMahon follows this development through to the present day, showing how our modern quest for the 'holy grail' of happiness continues to generate new forms of pleasure, but also, paradoxically, new forms of pain. Perfect happiness may exist only in our minds, but McMahon helps us discover that as for Cervantes' knight of sad countenance, Quixote, to travel is better than to arrive.

A History from the Greeks to the Present

The Pursuit of Happiness

Genius. The word connotes an almost unworldly power: the power to create, to grasp universal secrets, even to destroy. As renowned intellectual historian Darrin McMahon explains in Divine Fury, the concept of genius can be traced back to antiquity, when men of great insight were thought to be advised by demons. The modern idea of genius emerged in tension with a growing belief in human equality; contesting the notion that all are created equal, geniuses served to dramatize the exception of extraordinary individuals not governed by ordinary laws. Today, the idea of genius has become cheapened—rock stars and football coaches earn the term with seemingly the same ease as astrophysicists and philosophers—yet our enduring fascination with it reflects the desires, needs, and fears of ordinary human beings. The first comprehensive history of this mysterious yet foundational concept, Divine Fury follows the fortunes of genius from Socrates to Napoleon to Einstein and beyond, analyzing its democratization, disappearance, and potential rebirth.

A History of Genius

Divine Fury

Critics have long treated the most important intellectual movement of modern history--the Enlightenment--as if it took shape in the absence of opposition. In this groundbreaking new study, Darrin McMahon demonstrates that, on the contrary, contemporary resistance to the Enlightenment was a major cultural force, shaping and defining the Enlightenment itself from the moment of inception, while giving rise to an entirely new ideological phenomenon-what we have come to think of as the "Right." McMahon skillfully examines the Counter-Enlightenment, showing that it was an extensive, international, and thoroughly modern affair.

Samuel Moyn

This book is a collection of essays by leading practitioners of modern European intellectual history, reflecting on the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the field. The essays each attempt to assess their respective disciplines, giving an account of their development and theoretical evolution, while also reflecting on current problems, challenges, and possibilities.

Darrin M. McMahon

Books

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