We live in an age of unprecedented prosperity, yet everywhere we see signs that our pursuit of happiness has proven fruitless. Dissatisfied, we seek change for the sake of change鈥攅ven if it means undermining the foundations of our common life. In Why We Are Restless, Benjamin and Jenna Storey offer a profound and beautiful reflection on the roots of this malaise and examine how we might begin to cure ourselves.
Drawing on the insights of Montaigne, Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville, Why We Are Restless explores the modern vision of happiness that leads us on, and the disquiet that follows it like a lengthening shadow. In the sixteenth century, Montaigne articulated an original vision of human life that inspired people to see themselves as individuals dedicated to seeking contentment in the here and now, but Pascal argued that we cannot find happiness through pleasant self-seeking, only anguished God-seeking. Rousseau later tried and failed to rescue Montaigne鈥檚 worldliness from Pascal鈥檚 attack. Steeped in these debates, Tocqueville visited the United States in 1831 and, observing a people 鈥渞estless in the midst of their well-being,鈥� discovered what happens when an entire nation seeks worldly contentment鈥攁nd finds mostly discontent.
Arguing that the philosophy we have inherited, despite pretending to let us live as we please, produces remarkably homogenous and unhappy lives, Why We Are Restless makes the case that finding true contentment requires rethinking our most basic assumptions about happiness.
Benjamin Storey is the Jane Gage Hipp Professor of Politics and International Affairs and Director of the Tocqueville Program at Furman University. Jenna Silber Storey is Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs and Executive Director of the Tocqueville Program at Furman. They live in Greenville, South Carolina, with their three children. Laurel Lefkow is an award-winning narrator, actor, and voice artist. A frequent voice on BBC Radio 4, she appears in The Diplomat and Black Mirror on Netflix and has narrated more than four hundred audiobooks.
鈥淏enjamin and Jenna Storey鈥檚 delightful Why We Are Restless belongs on the shelf of thoughtful, accessible books on human happiness like Matthew Crawford鈥檚 Shop Class as Soulcraft and Sarah Bakewell鈥檚 How to Live. Through the lens of four French thinkers, the Storeys explore perennial questions about contentment and examine some of the most compelling responses put forward over the centuries. They are teachers in the best sense, inviting us to understand ourselves better than we do.鈥濃�擬ark Lilla, author of The Once and Future Liberal
鈥淭oday, so many of us are unable to sit still; obsessed with achievement, we are unable to think clearly about the purpose of our lives. The Storeys diagnose our ills as built into our implicit conception of happiness鈥攚e have sold ourselves short by aspiring to comfort and prosperity rather than to heroism or transcendent sources of wisdom or salvation. This challenging and provocative book provides us with substantial resources to look more closely at ourselves鈥攁ll the while offering clarity, healing, and hope, wherever our reflections lead.鈥濃�擹ena Hitz, author of Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life
鈥�Why We Are Restless is a tour de force of philosophical genealogy. The sour disquiet of our lives, the foreboding of our political moment, the pervasive sense that we have come up against some real existential stuff鈥攊t all comes into focus here as the denouement of a conversation that began over four hundred years ago. In retracing turns taken in the history of the West, the Storeys indicate intriguing paths out of the intellectual cul-de-sac we have wandered into.鈥濃�擬atthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft
鈥淲e moderns face a paradox. The freedom and abundance our societies have brought us only serve to make us discontented. In Why We Are Restless, Benjamin and Jenna Storey unearth the philosophical roots of this predicament. Their discussions of Montaigne, Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville are unfailingly lucid, humane, accessible, and engaging. This is popularization in the best sense. It is relevant, eloquent, and never talks down to the reader.鈥濃�擶illiam Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep
鈥淚n this elegantly argued and beautifully written book, Benjamin and Jenna Storey lay bare the intellectual root of our psychic distress: a shrunken view of our humanity, ignorant of the soul鈥檚 true longings. In tracing the history of the modern 鈥榮elf,鈥� the Storeys show the causes of our impoverished self-understanding and liberate us to choose a richer alternative. A most important book.鈥濃�擫eon R. Kass, professor emeritus, Committee on Social Thought and the College, University of Chicago
鈥�Why We Are Restless refuses to settle for easy and superficial solutions. Storey and Storey set out the deep tensions within each philosopher鈥檚 thought, and why they cannot be brushed aside.鈥濃�擜nn Hartle, Emory University
鈥淎bsorbing, elegant, and stimulating, Why We Are Restless possesses an easy fluency and understated wit that are as rare as they are delightful.鈥濃�擶ilfred McClay, author of The Masterless
