Humanity : An Emotional History

by stuart-walton

In his history of Englandof 1757m the novelist Tobias Smollett records the case of a suicide pact between a London bookbinder named Smith and his wife who, having fallen into bankruptcy, killed their only child and then themselves. What struck Smollet about these deaths was the absence of helplessness. The Smith's suicide was merely a calculated decision about the most prudent course open to them.Stuart Walton's vibrant, original and immensely enjoyable book shows that in 1732, when the Smiths' tragedy happened, such decorum was the general rule in polite society across Europe. An eruption of anger or misery would have marked a descent into savagery, something unseemly in members of a genteel culture. Walton contends that in the last two hundred and fifty years, there have been big changes in the unwritten rules that govern what can be expressed in public and in private. Our private lives have benefited from greater emotional honesty and articulacy (although Walton contends that there is still much progress still to be made), while some emotions, such as anger, appear to dominate public behaviour more than ever before. In An Emotional History Walton examines the history of each of our core emotions - fear, anger, disgust, sadness, jealousy, contempt, shame, embarrassment, surprise and happiness - in turn. For Walton, love and hate (between which there is famously only a thin line), are fundamental feelings that inveigle their way into all the other emotions. And he shows convincingly that without the emotions, there would be no human history. Walton's highly original and necessarily idiosyncratic work mixes history, philosophical insight and the latest science to produce a vivid and exuberant account of how emotions have shaped our past.

Genres: History

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Leer Para Pensar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leer Humanidad: una historia de las emociones, de Stuart Walton, ha sido una experiencia profundamente gratificante.

Este libro lo tuvo todo: entretenimiento, conocimiento, momentos de risa, sorpresa y admiración… casi tantas emociones como las que el propio autor analiza.
Walton recorre diez emociones fundamentales —como los celos, el miedo, el amor o el asco— y logra describirlas de una forma tan cercana que, al leer, uno siente que las está viviendo. Está muy bien documentado, explicado con claridad, y cada emoción se aborda en distintos tiempos: qué la provoca, qué significa y cómo ha sido entendida a lo largo de la historia humana.

Sí, es un libro extenso, pero también muy disfrutable. Algunos temas pueden interesar más a unos lectores que a otros, pero la escritura del autor es siempre profesional, inteligente y con un toque irónico y gracioso que lo hace aún más ameno.

Lo que más me dejó este libro es una idea poderosa: la humanidad está hecha de emociones. No somos solo razón. Muchas veces no manda la lógica, sino el miedo, la ira, los celos o el deseo. Y quizá por eso es tan difícil predecir a las personas: porque no somos máquinas racionales, somos criaturas emocionales.

En lo personal, me ayudó a comprender mejor de dónde vienen nuestras emociones y cuánto gobiernan nuestra vida cotidiana.

Es un libro poco conocido, una de esas joyas raras que uno encuentra por sorpresa y que dejan algo valioso. Ojalá quien lo lea descubra también un tesoro: un recorrido fascinante por esas diez emociones que nos hacen profundamente humanos.

[Rashad Raoufi]

its a very ambitious intellectual attempt to explain human emotions. its an a very hard book,very complex with full of big words which means its very helpful if you have a good dictionary with you whilst reading it. however its an sheer pleasure to read despite its idiosyncratic nature, if you love arts, humanity and history then this book is for you, its well researched and well written, very eloquent and amazing job that divulges philosophy,theology,psychology,history,literaure and the arts as well as politcs and even film studies!

throughly recommend to people that are interested in any or most of the above, its almost intellecutual stimulant as its very thought provoking. i am sure i may hve missed crucial bits because i didnt get the big words and even them sometimes, reaidng some paragraphs is part of the experience,very frustrating at times. its very engrossing but also verges on intellecutal rants at times which has nothing to do with the topic being discussed, still enjoybale to read anyhow.

[Marelise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction of each emotion is done quite well and I can relate to it. However, it gets quite tangential and meandering and doesn't seem to actually explore society's history with any of the emotions, except on a very circumstantial, random basis.