Agency

Drawing on six decades of pioneering research and a sweeping reexamination of the last 2500 years—from Periclean Athens and the Hebrew Torah to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Civil Rights Movement—Martin Seligman shows how rises and falls in agency have steered the course of history.

Agency is the big idea for our times: when individuals have confidence, optimism and imagination, civilizations leap forward. In their absence, societies stagnate—no matter how rich their resources or how brilliant their citizens.

This remarkable book shows how individuals can act with agency and, with a clear-eyed view of an AI-transformed future, argues that we are entering the next great era of human flourishing.