Peter Moore's Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness examines numerous historical figures from the late 18th century. Moore's writing style makes it easy to follow the information. The subject matter, from Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Paine, is examined in few ways I have not read about before. There were a few people, such as John Wilkes and Catharine Macaulay that were entered into the narration, but seemed to get lost or not as fleshed out as well as other figures even though this is quite a long work. I will say that Moore did a great job making Samual Johnson interesting, which I have not read a book that has been able to do that before.

Readers that enjoy late 18th century history will enjoy this work and will probably learn a few new things no matter how well read the reader is when it comes to the subject matter.

I received a digital ARC of this work from NetGalley and the publisher. I thank them for the opportunity, and acknowledge all opinions are my own.

A fitting book to have finished on the 4th of July. I, of course, know the famous lines from the Declaration of Independence. But even as someone who loves this history of the American Revolutionary War, I admittedly had not given their origin too much thought.
This book presents vast amounts of information to you from the first page all the way to the conclusion. This was not a book I devoured or was unable to put down. However, this was a book I found myself only able to read a chapter at a time but always picking it up the next day to read another chapter.
Most of the stories and characters are based on London and overall, told a literary history I was altogether unfamiliar with. As anybody who went to public high school in Pennsylvania, I knew about Ben Franklin and both Thomas Paine and John Wilkes were familiar to me. However William Straham, Samuel Johnson, and Catherine Macaulay were unfamiliar.
The book presents the inspirations behind “Life”, “Liberty”, and the “Pursuit of Happiness” in separate sections which sometimes made the story feel disjointed as it jumped between time periods and ignored characters for several chapters.
This books was a solid read and a solid 3 stars for me until the last section titled “Pursuit of Happiness” which I found more enjoyable than the others.
I believe I will find myself rereading this book at some point just because I know I could not comprehend everything in this book in just one read.

In “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness by Peter Moore we get to know the things that influenced not only the men who created the most famous statement of freedom in the zeitgeist but the things that influence them at home and abroad. From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Jefferson and even Mr. Hancock himself this book is so interesting and not only tells the tale of the atmosphere they were in body an atmosphere they became adults with that help them evolve into the freedom makers they were. I found this book so interesting and not only does Mr. Moore have a great grasp on the album that has a great talent for putting you in it and surrounding you with the news of the day and the things that made that time and place tick. We even go to England with Mr. Franklin NC all the reasons he would eventually big not only a great newspaperman but a great statesman. One of my favorite things is reading about a certain error and getting to know the social climate and the government Stan thoughts and opinions of the day in this book is full of it I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it is a total five star read Mr. Moore has really favored us with a great home that would stand out in anyone’s library what a great book and what a great statement life liberty and the pursuit of happiness where did it come from after reading this you may still not know but maybe have a better idea and could it have come from Scotland? Love this book I received it from NetGalley Ian Farrar and Strauss but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

The mid to late 1700's has a interesting cast of characters that sometimes gets overlooked for other time periods (the Tudors, American Civil War, World War II to name a few). "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" brings us stories of famous literary figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson and William Strahan. We find ourselves in a transatlantic journey and analyze what the iconic phrase in the Declaration of Independence means before the document was written in 1776.

I loved how Franklin got his moment in the sun. As one of my favorite Founding Father's and my favorite character in 1776, I enjoyed sharing a lot of the journey with him. He's a remarkable man, who loved both countries. He spent much of his life split between London and Philadelphia. Without his insight, and printing press our world as we know it wouldn't exist. Samuel Johnson of course wrote the dictionary and has very iconic quotes about London. He shares a lot of this book as well.

A man I really enjoyed learning about was John Wilkes. His distant relative John Wilkes Booth was named for him. He was a firey figure during the revolution. However, I felt his story got a bit lost. He would enter the story, disappear and enter again. A few of these men and Catharine Macaulay got got short changed with the amount of time spent on them in the book for how many pages were written. They could've been fleshed out better.

Although I had a few complaints, it was a very well researched books. I enjoyed all the quotes in the book, it felt like we really were right there in the 1700, enjoying the adventure itself. All in all, I give the book 4 stars. Despite some of the minor critiques, I enjoyed the book. I would recommend it to someone who wanted to read about the period with the ideals that sparked a revolution.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC.

Late 1700s writers were a prickly group! In Peter Moore's, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," Moore looks at the lives of multiple literary giants including Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Johnson. It is an interesting look at how so many names attached to Great Britain and the nascent United States overlap. I liked a lot of things about this book. Franklin gets a lot of the spotlight and Moore leaves a lot of breadcrumbs showing how Franklin could be someone who loves England, but then became one of the main patriots. I knew very little of John Wilkes and Catherine Macaulay which made their sections especially interesting. Plus, there is plenty of drama between all these characters which keeps the narrative moving.

I did have one main criticism which does not sink the book but forced me to knock off a star on the rating. This book is a bit long and didn't need to be. For instance, while Catherine Macaulay deserves to have plenty written about her, she is extraneous to the book and not fully developed. Of the 18 chapters, she disappears for the majority of them. In fact, this happens with a few of the characters. Thomas Paine is only in the last couple of chapters and seems to emerge from nowhere.

In summary, I liked everything Moore wrote, but also recognize there is a lot here that is not vital to the examination of the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This is still a good book and definitely worth a read.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)