The Progress Paradox

Gregg Easterbrook, a journalist, argues that life in the Western world has improved dramatically over the last hundred years, yet many people report being less content than their parents and grandparents were. Drawing on thirty years of research across many fields, he lays out the case that the gap between material progress and personal happiness is real and worth examining.

A major part of the book introduces positive psychology, the young field that studies what makes people feel well. Easterbrook explains its findings and uses them to question the constant focus on bad news and grievance that dominates much of public life. He contends that practices such as optimism, gratitude, and forgiveness do more than improve daily life. He presents them as serving our own interests too.

Written for general readers interested in happiness, society, and personal outlook, the book asks what it would mean to see the present as a foundation for further improvement. It encourages readers to rethink their own place in the world and their capacity, as a society, to keep making things better.