This is backstory. I'm Ed Hears.

Well, do you want to be really happy?

You could stay here in America or move very far away.

This is coverage of the World Happiness Report.

It ranks the happiest countries on Earth.

And in 2013, America was ranked number 11.

But just a few years later, the news was not so happy.

Out of 158 countries, the United States came in 15.

The US might be slipping in the rankings,

but Americans have long held that the pursuit of happiness

is their self-evident right.

Today, on backstory, we'll explore how the meaning of that pursuit has changed across time.

From the 19th century origins of the self-help movement

to why Americans in the 1920s were obsessed

with recording the sound of happiness.

A history pursuing happiness in America today on backstory.

Major funding for backstory is provided by the ShiaCon Foundation,

the National Endowment for the Humanities,

the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation,

and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities,

this is backstory with the American History Guide.

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