A Human History of Emotion

August 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.