The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50

Interesting and heartening premise: that life satisfaction dips in one's 40s then goes back up, and that this is true across gender, income, nationality, and even primate species. However, he acknowledges that his sources are skewed toward the high achieving and professional American and is this ever true.If ambitious and fun-loving in your 20s, busy and very successful in your 30s, a bit disappointed in your 40s, but increasingly content and suddenly aware of the rest of humanity beyond 50 isn't your life trajectory, you may feel this book is a bit shallow and obvious. However, if your life has always been pretty fab and you find yourself concerned at 48 that you are sliding into a never ending funk with diminishing reason to live for the rest of your life, then hold off on the divorce/motorcycle/alcohol for at least as long as it takes to read this book.

This is without question the most important book I have ever read (and I've lost count at my age of how many books, thousands...). Written like a detective novel, but non-fiction, Rauch cleverly and powerfully combines insights from economists, psychologists and other experts to address a question that has baffled mankind for ages -- which is why so many people feel worse as they age (having nothing to do with their health, income, social status) and then more or less around 50 begin to feel more satisfied with their lives. Everyone, regardless of age, should read this book. If you're well under 50, it will warn you of potentially rocky times ahead, and if you're OK, you'll finally understand what you very likely have lived through but couldn't explain what or why you felt the way you did. This book is a masterpiece, and one you can't put down once you start. To say it's a tour de force is not to do it justice. Whatever prizes this book should win, it should win (though the author will tell you why the good feeling he will earn from this will be fleeting). There are similar lessons for the rest of us. Don't wait, buy this book, read it, and bask in the glow.

It’s hard to put into words, especially within the confines of an Amazon review, exactly what is so wonderful about this book. The writing, of course, is sublime – Jonathan Rauch is one of the best journalists of his generation, and he has an almost preternatural ability to write compellingly about even the most complicated subjects. But the subject matter, of course, is what really makes this book required reading for anyone approaching, in the middle of, or leaving middle-age. In a word, what this book has to offer is hope – hope for people who are going through hard times in middle-age, hope for people who find themselves doing OK in middle-age but nervous about what old age may hold, and frankly, hope for anyone who thinks or worries at all about how life changes as you get older. The message Rauch delivers is comforting, smart, insightful, and relentlessly optimistic. There’s not a lot of optimism in our world today, and cynicism seems to be the coin of the realm for many people. Not so with Jonathan Rauch. His book is a welcome antidote to that corrosive mindset. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s the kind of book that you will not only find yourself underlining constantly, but that you will tell friends they have to read with such pestering insistence that they might think something’s a little bit wrong with you. The book is just that damn good.

In this beautifully written book, Jonathan Rauch explains that we fundamentally misconceive "getting older". Patiently, with dozens of life stories (including his own), he shows how midlife crisis is less a reconciliation to dispair than a necessary step to a broader happiness. He also translates academic research to show that his anecdotes are not exceptions, but exemplars.Far too much of what we read today serves only to reinforce what we already think. Try this book to reopen your eyes -- and get a more hopeful view of humanity.

From one of our leading public intellectuals who has written path-breaking books to defend free inquiry, promote gay marriage, and propose ways to improve our fractured politics comes perhaps his most important work of all -- a clear, concise, cogent, and compelling exploration of that most elusive of goals: happiness. From his own experience and that of many others with whom he spoke, Jonathan Rauch explains why we endure a mid-life slump in our outlook, but one that's thankfully followed almost invariably by a happier mood after we pass age 50. Rauch reassures us that our slump has less to do with objective reality -- the accomplishments of our lives to that point -- and more to do with the normal rhythms of human existence. And he offers us hope, backed by extensive research, that better days are ahead for us as we age. This is a marvelous, beautifully written, uplifting work of research and reality, passion and humanity. Read it -- now. You'll be glad that you did.

I liked that the message is consistent with research I have seen lately, regarding stages of human development. This will be very helpful to me in my counselling practice--helping people to understand that sometimes a low point in life in the 40s and 50s is just a natural stage of human development, and it doesn't mean we need to quit our jobs, leave our spouses, or harm ourselves.

This book can change your thoughts on life and help you keep on track! - Ouvrage s'appuyant sur d'intéressantes études de cas et aussi sur des etudes approfondies sur le sens de cette transition et son pertinence dans nos vies, voir son utilité.Thanks Mr. Rauch, very helpful! Merci pour ce bel outil de réflexion.

The cover of the book had a black line stain on the crease along the binding, from bottom to top. As it was purchased new as a gift, not used, that was disappointing. Likely sat on the shelf for a while.

Intensa produzione di evidenze ( studi e ricerche) , forse eccessiva. Avrebbe potuto essere lungo metà e i concetti sarebbero comunque passati.

Just what the media says about stages of life.