Between 1840 and 1910, hundreds of thousands of men and women traveled deep into the underdeveloped American West, lured by the prospect of adventure and opportunity, and galvanized by the spirit of Manifest Destiny. Alongside this rapid expansion of the United States, a second, overlapping social shift was taking place: survival in a settler society busy building itself from scratch required two equally hardworking partners, compelling women to compromise...

Acclaimed behavioral science writer Gallagher makes the radical argument that the quality of a life largely depends on what and how one chooses to pay attention. "Rapt" yields fresh insights into the nature of reality and what it means to be fully alive.