Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Bestselling historian Peter Moore traces how Enlightenment ideas were exported from Britain and put into practice in America - where they became the most successful export of all time, the American Dream'A trove of gripping...characters. Wonderfully absorbing and stimulating' SARAH BAKEWELL, author of AT THE EXISTENTIALIST CAFE'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness' is the best-known phrase from the Declaration of Independence, one of the most important documents of the eighteenth century and the whole Enlightenment Age. Written by Thomas Jefferson, it is frequently evoked today as a shorthand for that idea we call the 'American Dream'. But this is a line with a surprising history. Rather than being uniquely American, the vision it encapsulates - of a free and happy world - owes a great deal to British thinkers too.Centred on the life of Benjamin Franklin, featuring figures like 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. It takes us back to a vital moment in the foundation of the West, a time full of intent, confidence and ideas. It tells a whole new story about the birth of the United States of America - and some of the key principles by which we live to this very day.

Moore offers a rich and immersive intellectual history of the American Revolution... This is a pleasure, Like Jenny Uglow's The Lunar Men and Leo Damrosch's The Club, Moore's vibrant group biography brings to life the intellectual and political currents, in Britain and Colonial America, that gave rise to the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,"... An energetic and meticulously researched history, A timely reminder that the origins of the three big ideas in the American Dream lay mainly in Great Britain, with a lively account of the principal actors and episodes in the developing drama, and Benjamin Franklin in the starring role: a great read, With deft insights and in clear prose, Moore restores the cosmopolitan origins of an American Revolution meant to liberate human potential. In this eloquent book, that revolution becomes more global and enduring and less parochial and limited, Building on the pioneering work of Bernard Bailyn and John Brewer, Peter Moore offers a gripping account of the way in which British pamphlet wars of the 1760s fuelled American debates about independence. Mixing famous Founders with lesser known figures, especially Franklin's long-time friend the Tory printer and publisher William Strahan, Moore's book brings out the hidden roots of the Declaration of Independence

Peter Moore is a writer, journalist and lecturer. He teaches creative writing at the University of Oxford. His debut, Damn His Blood, reconstructed a rural murder in 1806. His second, The Weather Experiment, a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year', traced early efforts to forecast the weather. His latest book, Endeavour, was a multiple book of the year and a Sunday Times bestseller. He presents a history podcast called Travels Through Time.