For a year, Mr. Rosen writes in “The Pursuit of Happiness,” “I got up every morning before sunrise, read a selection from his list, and found myself taking notes on the reading in sonnet ...

Nowadays, most of us think of happiness as something that results from the pursuit of pleasure. But writer and historian Jeffrey Rosen says the Founding Fathers had other ideas.

No. And I think in the last 20, 25, 30 years, we took a big dive in the opposite direction. Happiness became known as physical happiness and just things that you normally weren't raised. Talking ...