Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 336
•
Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-0-7425-2591-7 • Hardback • September 2003 • $38.00 • (£30.00)
978-0-7425-2592-4 • Paperback • September 2005 • $29.00 • (£19.99)
978-1-4616-1421-0 • eBook • September 2005 • $27.50 • (£19.99)
Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 I American Pie
Chapter 3 II A Felicitous Choice of Words
Chapter 4 III Everywhere in Chains
Chapter 5 IV Unfinished Work
Chapter 6 V "Peace Now!"
Chapter 7 VI Happy Warriors
Chapter 8 VII More Unfinished Work
Chapter 9 VIII Pursuit of Knowledge
Chapter 10 IX True Happiness
Chapter 11 X Freedom Man
Chapter 12 Epilogue
In this important and compelling book, Carl Cannon follows 'the pursuit of happiness' through American history, demonstrating both how vibrantly enduring the idea has been for two hundred years and how essential it is to understanding who we are as a people. Here is a history lesson and a contemplation on what it means to be an American in the same book.
— Dayton Duncan, author of Out West: A Journey through Lewis & Clark’s America
In this wonderful read, Carl Cannon has charted how U.S. presidents from George Washington to George Bush—and patriots from Frederick Douglass to John McCain—have used the galvanizing language of the Declaration of Independence to rally Americans to a cause larger than themselves. That cause—that truly noble cause—is the inexorable expansion of Thomas Jefferson's 'unalienable rights' to those who do not have them. The book has a strong narrative thread from start to finish, but each of Cannon's dozen chapters comprises an essay that would be worthy of the price of the book by itself.
— Joel Garreau, author of The Nine Nations of North America
One of our ablest President-watchers tackles an even bigger subject with grace and originality.
— Richard E. Neustadt, Harvard University
Carl Cannon gives us an elegant tone poem to the purpose of the American idea. Through reflections on leaders historic and contemporary, Cannon delivers a patriotism far more engaging and profound than sticking an Old Glory pin on the lapel. He has captured something essential about the American spirit—at a time we need it most.
— Michael D. McCurry, former White House press secretary to President Bill Clinton
A moving, personal restatement of America's ideals by one of the very finest of American journalists.
— David Frum, author of The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush
Words matter. Carl Cannon tells the story of how the words 'the pursuit of happiness,' have led generations of Americans to understand why they are willing to fight for their freedom. Cannon is a gifted writer, and this is a book you will find hard to put down.
— Michael Barone, senior writer, U.S. News and World Report and author of Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan
As a White House correspondent who covers his beat from a broad perspective, Carl Cannon is the perfect reporter to explore the ways in which our presidents have used the term 'pursuit of happiness.' Including in his discussion presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush, Cannon demonstrates how significant the concept has been to our presidents and how ChiefExecutives have used the term in ways mirroring their contemporary political values.
— Martha Joynt Kumar, Towson University
I intend to keep this book close by as a reminder that pursuing happiness is not a guilty pleasure, but an act of defiance against tyranny. Against a nation thus armed, terrorists don't stand a chance.
— Kathleen Parker; Nationally Syndicated Columnist For The Orlando Sentinel<
Cannon has filled Pursuit of Happiness with lots of tasty details that make the broader lessons about politics and presidents go down more easily.
— Chicago Tribune
A highly readable and interesting volume.
— The Washington Times
In this sprawling meditation, Carl Cannon, a White House correspondent for National Journal, looks at how a large cast of notables have spoken of the pursuit of happiness during wartime. The results are sometimes surprising.
— The Wilson Quarterly
·Author Carl Cannon is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who is currently White House correspondent for the weekly, bipartisan National Journal.
·Pursuit is based on interviews with all living U.S. presidents and explores their perspectives on the meaning of Thomas Jefferson's resonant phrase from the Declaration of Independence.
·From the Revolutionary War to the war in Iraq, Cannon paints a sweeping picture of the way in which American patriots have pursued happiness in the context of devastation, thus reinforcing American life and liberty.
·Cannon shows the redefinition of "happiness" in the process-not just the pursuit of property or material goods, but a spiritual quest for the greatest good for the greatest number in an egalitarian America.
·The dedication of the book—to two casualties of Iraq—and the concluding chapter—"Freedom Man"—root the historical reflection on the pursuit of happiness deeply in the contemporary context of the war in Iraq.
·On this, Cannon isworth reading again as we make the transition from occupation to what we hope will be an independent Iraq. As Cannon says, the success of the war "will be judged on whether a decent society with a functioning government emerges."