This book wasn’t what I expected. Normally, for a nonfiction, that isn’t a good sign because people are looking for certain information, or in the very least, have the vague but vested interest in the topic and thus anticipate certain ways the book would turn out. The title suggests more of an analytic approach to today’s model of well-being investment while the majority of the book focuses on the history of how the industrial and political economy has come to invest in the notion of happiness. The last chapter (“Critical animals”) was what I imagined this entire book would be. Regardless, I really like the book, probably because this topic is relatively new to me, and it didn’t hurt to know the origin story of the happiness industry.

Davies has done justice to the development of the industrialized mental investment as he took the readers chronologically through economic, political, psychological, and philosophical perspectives to explore the topic. The structure of the book is well organized and there is a sense of consistency throughout, which helps a lot in keeping my engagement; plus, his voice is academic and formal yet easy to understand. I also appreciate the fact that he introduces many concepts (accompanied by intimidating -ism words, ha ha) and explores them in-depth as opposed to just verbosely mentioning them. His tour to the past also includes notable figures and technological development related to the topic. Although he did not tackle the premise in the way I thought he would, he was successful in a way that makes me reevaluate positive psychology and more aware of the underlining motif to well-being campaigns.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. If you haven’t any mistrust of the elites (ie. scientists, politicians, big corporates, etc.), you will; if you already are skeptical of how the society is designed, you will have another well-reasoned point to argue.