Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hap..., Peter Moore
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hap..., Peter Moore
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Britain and the American Dream

Author: Peter Moore

Narrator: John Lee

Unabridged: 17 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/27/2023

Synopsis

The most famous phrase in American history once looked quite different. "The preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness" was how Thomas Jefferson put it in the first draft of the Declaration, before the first ampersand was scratched out, along with "the preservation of." The precise contours of these three rights have never been pinned down—and yet in making these words into rights, Jefferson reified the hopes (and debates) not only of a group of rebel-statesmen but also of an earlier generation of British thinkers who could barely imagine a country like the United States of America.

Peter Moore's Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness tells the true story of what may be the most successful import in US history: the "American dream." Centered on the friendship between Benjamin Franklin and the British publisher William Strahan, and featuring figures including the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the ground-breaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician John Wilkes, and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine, this book looks at the generation that preceded the Declaration in 1776. Everyone, it seemed, had "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" on their minds; Moore shows why, and reveals how these still-nascent ideals made their way across an ocean and started a revolution.

About Peter Moore

Peter Moore is an English writer, historian, and lecturer. He is the author of Endeavour and The Weather Experiment, which were both Sunday Times bestsellers in the United Kingdom. The Weather Experiment was also chosen as one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015. He teaches at the University of Oxford, has lectured internationally on eighteenth century history, and hosts a history podcast called Travels Through Time.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Janalyn, the blind reviewer on June 23, 2023

In “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness by Peter Moore we get to know the things that influenced not only the men who created the most famous statement of freedom in the zeitgeist but the things that influence them at home and abroad. From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Jefferson and even Mr. Han......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on June 03, 2023

Late 1700s writers were a prickly group! In Peter Moore's, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," Moore looks at the lives of multiple literary giants including Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Johnson. It is an interesting look at how so many names attached to Great Britain and the nascent Unit......more

Goodreads review by Lynn on October 10, 2023

This si a wonderfully informative and well written exploration of how events and personalities in England in the mid 1700's formed both the intellectual foundations and opposition to the American Revolution. Though it centers on Benjamin Franklin, a wide range of characters appear, some of whom I di......more

Goodreads review by Socraticgadfly on October 18, 2023

First, as an American, it's always nice to read books about our history written by non-Americans. (I've previously read a book, aeons ago, author and title escape me, by a British writer, about the American Revolution, or perhaps the British Civil War from that point of view and Holger Hoock's book......more

Goodreads review by Traci on June 09, 2023

The mid to late 1700's has a interesting cast of characters that sometimes gets overlooked for other time periods (the Tudors, American Civil War, World War II to name a few). "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" brings us stories of famous literary figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel......more

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