American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason

Professor Caroline Winterer, Chairwoman of the Stanford University History Department, provided a thought-provoking account of how Americans in the 18th Century came to be “enlightened” – not as the European Enlightenment envisioned it, but in our own American way, with a powerful emphasis on the “pursuit of happiness” – a concept literally written into our Declaration of Independence. This sold-out event was held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento.