Publishers Weekly
08/23/2021
Though “humors,” “passions,” and “sentiments” have been around since antiquity, “emotions” are a relatively modern concept, writes researcher Firth-Godbehere in this accessible survey. Emotions are “the way we use the sum of our experiences to understand how we feel in particular circumstances,” Firth-Godbehere writes, and looks at the roles different emotions have played globally. He examines the witch crazes in Europe of the 16th and 17th centuries (which, he argues, happened because of Europeans’ specific understanding of fear and abomination), the role of shame in 19th-century Japan during Yoshida Shō in’s time, and the Chinese Communist Party’s use of “emotion-raising” techniques in the 1940s, including short plays “designed to provoke a thirst for revenge against the nations humiliating China.” In considering whether emotions are innate or culturally constructed, Firth-Godbehere concludes that they are often both: many emotions, such as disgust, are universal but are expressed within certain cultural parameters. While his survey leaves open the question of how the way humans understand and express emotions “built the world we know,” it’s nonetheless a well-written, fact-filled global tour. Readers interested in a history of emotional responses will find this a good place to start. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
"An educative foray...Insightful…Plenty of scholars seem to have read everything on their chosen subjects, but it’s rare to find one who can convert this massive database into lucid, captivating prose. Paul Johnson and Yuval Noah Harari do it; Firth-Godbehere is another."—Kirkus (Starred Review)
"A fascinating look at the profound ways in which the harnessing of human emotions has shaped world-wide history and culture. Eye-opening and thought-provoking!”—Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain
“A well-written, fact-filled global tour. Readers interested in a history of emotional responses will find this a good place to start.”—Publishers Weekly
"Emotions are a much bigger part of the experience of being human than most people would ever realize. If you want to know more about emotions and how we arrived at our understanding of them, this book is exactly what you need."—Dean Burnett, author of Happy Brain
“Reading The Human History of Emotion is like watching a familiar film turned upside down. Take Richard Firth-Godbehere's hand and let him walk you down a strange path through some new and familiar historical landscapes. I very much enjoyed having my preconceptions challenged, and any book so comprehensive that it starts with Socrates and ends with emojis deserves a place on my bookshelf.”—Iszi Lawrence, author and co-host of Making History
"Richard Firth-Godbehere takes us on a rollercoaster of historical emotions, from the ancient to the modern and into the future. He shows that human emotions are more complex than you might think, with an infectious enthusiasm and energy that keep the pages turning. Whether you are looking for new ideas, narrative history, psychological theory, or cultural anthropology, this book will teach you something new about how people have felt about their feelings through the ages. A book like no other."—Thomas Dixon, author of Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears
"As we are so often held siege by and manipulated by our emotions, it seems wise to become calmly acquainted with them. Richard Firth-Godbehere provides an elegant and entertaining guide to the best and the worst of our furies and delights."—Robin Ince, co-host of The Infinite Monkey Cage
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-09-07
An educative foray into a “growing discipline…that tries to understand how people understood their feelings in the past.”
How mankind has dealt with emotion might seem an abstruse academic problem, but this is an insightful and mostly accessible history that should intrigue diligent readers. Firth-Godbehere, research fellow for the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary University, hits the ground running by pointing out that emotions are a concept “that English-speaking Westerners put in a box two hundred years ago….The notion that feelings are something that happen in the brain was invented in the early nineteenth century.” Earlier thinkers spoke of temperaments, passions or sentiments—archaic terms now replaced with a single catchall term. The author casts his net widely, beginning with the ancient Greeks, who had no shortage of opinions on our inner lives. Later Christian theologians, led by St. Augustine, concluded that feelings are not good or bad in themselves; their value is determined based on how they are used in the service of God. Any emotion could be sinful if used for personal gain. In the modern age, we have largely discarded the almost universal idea that controlling one’s feelings is the mark of a civilized person. Showing emotions is acceptable, and even material desires (i.e. “covetousness”) are OK if one shows “good taste.” Firth-Godbehere notes that all these concepts are Western, and he goes on to introduce different approaches to emotions in Japan, Africa, and China. Although described as a history, this book delves deeply into philosophy, the theologies of the major religions (rife with commonalities), science, the arts, and social movements from humanism to communism. Plenty of scholars seem to have read everything on their chosen subjects, but it’s rare to find one who can convert this massive database into lucid, captivating prose. Paul Johnson and Yuval Noah Harari do it; Firth-Godbehere is another.
Occasionally heavy reading that is well worth the effort.
